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GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 
BALKAN PROBLEMS 



GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS 
OF BALKAN PROBLEMS 

IN THEIR RELATION TO THE GREAT 
EUROPEAN WAR 

• BY 

MARION I. NEWBIGIN D.Sc. (Lond.) 

EDITOR OF "THE SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE" 
AUTHOR OF "MODERN GEOGRAPHY, " ETC. 



WITH A COLOURED MAP OF SOUTH- 
EASTERN EUROPE, AND SKETCH - MAPS 



SECOND IMPRESSION 



LONDON 
CONSTABLE &f COMPANY LTD. 

1915 



^ 



y^tx^ 



N- V 



Printed in Great Britain. 



'■ 









PREFACE 

This little book is intended, as its title suggests, 
to summarize those geographical facts which made 
the Balkan Peninsula the potential storm-centre 
of Europe, for long years before the summer sky 
was rent by the lightning-flash which destroyed 
for ever the Old Europe, and changed in a moment 
all the familiar fabric of our daily life. The facts 
herein set forth do not seem to have been previ- 
ously collected and correlated in an English book, 
and some of them are not easy of access. At the 
same time, there can be little doubt that an ac- 
quaintance with them, and with their political and 
social bearings, is of great importance in forming 
a judgment on desirable frontier changes in the 
region. Primarily, indeed, the book was begun 
with the desire to beguile for one non-combatant 
the gloom of the Winter of Waiting by the carry- 
ing through of a self-imposed task which gave at 
least the illusion of usefulness. But it is hoped 
that this motive was not wholly illusory, and 
that the book may be found helpful to those who 
are striving to use their detachment from the 
actual field of battle to increase that knowledge 



VI 



PREFACE 



of others which is the beginning of political as of 
all wisdom. The author is further not without 
some hope that even when the day of peace dawns 
finally the volume will not entirely lose signifi- 
cance; for we cannot believe that the new Britain 
which will arise after the war can ever reacquire 
her former insular indifference to the politics and 
geography of the Near East. For this reason 
especially a deliberate attempt has been made to 
keep free from the bitterness of war, to set forth 
as dispassionately as may be the facts of geog- 
raphy which underlie the ceaseless racial strife of 
the sorely tried area here discussed, and thus to 
aid, in however insignificant a degree, in the 
building of that New Europe for which we wait 
and long. 

Edinburgh, 
June, 191 5. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAG E 

I. THE STRUCTURAL CHARACTERS OF THE BALKAN 

PENINSULA - - - - - I 

II. GEOGRAPHY AND POLITICS: THE INDEPENDENT 

STATES AND THEIR ASPIRATIONS - 19 

III. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: HER BALKAN LANDS AND HER 

BALKAN INTERESTS - - - 36 

IV. TURKISH POSSESSIONS AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE 

WAR OF 1912 -' - - - 52 

V. RIVER SYSTEMS AND POLITICAL TENDENCIES: THE 

HYDROGRAPHIC ANOMALIES OF THE PENINSULA 66 

VI. THE MAIN TRADE ROUTES: THEIR PAST HISTORY 

AND PROBABLE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT - 88 

VII. THE PEOPLES OF THE PENINSULA : (i) THE ALBANIANS 

AND THEIR UNSUCCESSFUL STATE - - 1 06 

VIII. THE PEOPLES OF THE PENINSULA: (2) THE INDE- 
PENDENT STATES AND THEIR INHABITANTS - 1 23 

IX. THE CLIMATES OF THE PENINSULA IN RELATION TO 

AGRICULTURE - - - - - 1 44 

X. MODES OF LAND UTILIZATION: (i) THE UNFREE 

PEASANT IN THESSALY - - - - 1 63 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XI. MODES OF LAND UTILIZATION : (2) FREE AND UNFREE 

PEASANT IN THE WESTERN BELT - - 1 82 

XII. MODES OF LAND UTILIZATION: (3) MODERN AGRI- 
CULTURE IN SERBIA AND BULGARIA - - 1 98 

XIII. TERRITORIAL CHANGES AFTER THE I912-I913 BALKAN- 
WARS - - - - - " 2I 5 

EPILOGUE: THE FUTURE AND ITS PROBLEMS - 228 

INDEX ... - - 239 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIG. PAGE 

1. SKETCH-MAP OF MEDITERRANEAN REGION TO SHOW 

STRUCTURAL FEATURES 2 

2. STRUCTURAL MAP OF BALKAN PENINSULA - -12 

3. SKETCH-MAP OF PENINSULA TO SHOW THE OLD STATE 

BOUNDARIES, THE CHIEF RAILWAYS, AND THE 
RIVERS ----- 22 

4. SKETCH-MAP OF NORTH ALBANIA - - 59 

5. THE UPPER MARITZA AND ITS TRIBUTARIES, TO ILLUS- 

TRATE RIVER CAPTURE - 75 

6. SKETCH-MAP TO SHOW CHIEF ROMAN ROADS - - 91 

7. THE EXISTING RAILWAYS AND THE CHIEF RAILWAY 

SCHEMES - - - - - -IO3 

8. THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PEOPLES OF THE PENINSULA 133 

9. COMPARISON OF AREA AND POPULATION OF THE 

COUNTRIES OF THE BRITISH ISLES WITH THOSE OF 

THE INDEPENDENT BALKAN STATES IN I9I3 - 1 50 

10. SKETCH-MAP OF THE PLAINS OF THESSALY - - 1 65 

11. MAP TO ILLUSTRATE THE SERBO-BULGARIAN SECRET 

TREATY - - - - - -217 

GENERAL MAP OF THE BALKAN PENINSULA AND 
ADJACENT REGIONS. 

ix 



GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 
BALKAN PROBLEMS 

CHAPTER I 

THE STRUCTURAL CHARACTERS OF THE BALKAN 

PENINSULA 

The Mediterranean peninsulas — Elements of the earth's crust 
in the Mediterranean region — Young folded mountains, 
ancient land-masses, foundered areas — The folded moun- 
tains of the Balkan Peninsula — General structure of the 
peninsula — Its chief political consequences. 

Into the Mediterranean Sea there project four 
great tongues of land; of these, three are European, 
while the fourth — Asia Minor — owing to a mode 
of land division which present-day geography has 
inherited from an earlier period, is regarded as 
forming part of another continent. All four, how- 
ever, possess certain features in common, and all 
are closely bound up with the history of the 
Mediterranean Sea. That sea is at once very 
young and very old. It is old in that the existing 
depression is a remnant of a mightier ocean, which 
can be traced back into early geological time; but 
it is young in that some of the separate basins 
which constitute it perhaps originated after man 
had appeared on the earth. 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 3 

It is beyond our scope here to trace through the 
ages the history of that part of the earth's surface 
over which the blue waters of the inland sea now 
flow, but at the same time it is difficult to under- 
stand existing relations — the relations which have 
made the political development of the Balkan 
Peninsula so troubled and so complex — without 
some reference to the geological past of the whole 
area. 

Fig. i is a sketch-map showing certain structural 
features of the Mediterranean region. It will be 
noted that all four of its peninsulas are traversed, 
to a greater or less extent, by branches of those 
young mountain-chains which, though loftiest and 
most familiar in the case of the Alps, yet all but 
engirdle the Inland Sea. In addition to the 
mountain-chains, the map shows two other features 
of the Mediterranean area. Here are depressions — 
depressions over which roll now the waters of the 
Tyrrhenian, Adriatic, and ^Egean Seas — which 
mark the site of foundered blocks of the earth's 
crust. Here also are massive resistant areas which, 
in Central Spain, in the centre of the Balkan 
Peninsula, in Asia Minor, have stood out both 
against the mountain-making forces which raised 
the Alps and their satellites, and against the land- 
destroying agents which caused old continents to 
founder beneath the ocean. Such old, resistant, 
continental masses always tend to repel human 
settlement to their margins; have tended, also, in 



4 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

human history to conserve powerful stocks of 
men, who time and again, after having been driven 
to the barren uplands, have there found strength, 
in the course of time, to surge downwards again to 
the marginal plains, and drive out the intruders 
who were once their conquerers. 

As contrasted with Italy, the Iberian and the 
Balkan Peninsulas are specially remarkable for 
their central continental masses, margined by 
mountain and valley. Long centuries ago the 
Spaniard drove out the Arab; within our own day 
the Slav has been gathering strength to descend 
from the uplands and sweep the Turk from the 
plains. That it has taken him so long to do this 
is, as we shall see, largely a matter of the geograph- 
ical characters of the land. 

Old resistant land-masses, young folded moun- 
tain-chains, sea-covered basins where old lands 
have sunk — these are the three essential elements 
of the crust in and near the Mediterranean penin- 
sulas. Let us note, in a few words, the relations 
of the three to one another. 

The old land-masses, which consist almost ex- 
clusively of ancient types of rocks, are believed to 
have stood above the surface of the sea for a 
prolonged period. In the seas around them land 
waste was laid down, and here also in places 
massive limestones were built up by marine animals . 
At the end of long ages, for reasons about which 
we can only speculate, earth movements took 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 5 

place, and the great masses of sediment were 
folded and puckered, raised above sea-level, frac- 
tured, over-thrust, contorted, modified in a thou- 
sand ways, and thus mountain-chains arose. 

If we liken the mountains to earth-waves, then 
we have to think of the old land blocks as forming 
breakwaters, against which the waves broke. The 
forces which crumpled the soft sedimentary rocks 
like paper, seem to have had little direct effect 
upon the old land blocks, for the folds turn round 
them as the incoming tide rounds projecting rocks 
and dashes up the intervening inlets. But if these 
mighty forces continue to act, the power of resis- 
tance of the blocks is sooner or later overcome. 
They cannot fold — for that they are too hard — 
but they seem to snap as ice or glass might snap. 
Great segments sink beneath the surface of the 
sea; others are thrust upward, raised above the 
general surface. 

Now let us apply this general description to the 
areas shown in Fig. i. Only some of the old land 
blocks are indicated, but we may judge of their 
breakwater effect by the sweeping curves of the 
mountain-chains. Look first at the Alps proper. 
They swing in a huge semicircle round the Plain of 
Lombardy, and, far to the east, divide, as though 
parted by that block of which a fragment is ex- 
posed in the hills of Slavonia. The northern arm 
swings round as the Carpathians, is thrown back 
by the block of Russia (not shown), and forced to 



6 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

curve westward again as the Transylvanian Alps. 
These in their turn are blocked by the central mass 
of the Balkan Peninsula, which flings the folds 
eastwards, and they run on as the Balkan Range, 
till we lose them beneath the waters of the Black Sea. 

Turn now to the southern branch of the Eastern 
Alps. It is deflected southward by the Slavonian 
mass, and runs in a south-easterly direction till it 
also abuts upon the central Balkan mass. Here 
the folds, if we may put the matter so, rebound 
much as a current of water swirls round in an eddy, 
and thus produce a region of great structural com- 
plexity, and, as we shall see, one also of great 
geographical importance. Thereafter the folds 
run for a time almost due south till they finally 
take an eastward direction once more, and are lost 
to us as they cross the iEgean and enter Asia Minor. 

The result, as we see, is that the Rhodope mass 
in the centre of the peninsula is all but surrounded 
by folded chains. Necessarily, therefore, it is a 
region which has been subjected to great disturb- 
ance — fault lines, outbursts of volcanic rock, hot 
springs, are, as we shall see later, some of the signs 
of this disturbance. In the meantime, however, 
it is more important to notice, what the map only 
suggests — that, apparently as a result of the 
pressure of the mountain-building forces, the 
southern part of the old continental mass has sunk 
beneath the sea . When this sea — the ^Egean — was 
formed, the European part of the land block was 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 7 

broken off from the Asiatic; Europe was here 
separated from Asia, and the development of 
Greece was rendered possible. 

The characters of the other peninsulas we shall 
not stay to note, but may point out that, just as 
the ^Egean has been formed in a region of extensive 
— and encircling — folding, so also have the Tyr- 
rhenian and Adriatic Seas originated in similar 
regions. It was the sinking of the Adriatic which 
gave a large part of the Balkan region its peninsular 
form, and the narrowness of that sea, especially at 
one critical area, has had much bearing upon the 
political history of the region. 

Let us note one other point: the curve of the 
Carpathians bounds eastward the plain of Hun- 
gary; the curve of the Transylvanian Alps, con- 
tinued into the Balkans, bounds to the westward 
the lower plain of the Danube (cf. Figs, i and 2 and 
the coloured map). The two plains are linked by 
that river, which is, however, constricted where it 
crosses the mountain belt at the narrow passage of 
the Iron Gates. Now, Hungarian plain and Rou- 
manian basin alike were — geologically but yester- 
day — covered by a vast sea, a sea of which the 
present Black Sea is in part a remnant The 
Danube, at least in its lower portion, we may regard 
as the last relic of that former sea, for it arose as 
the sea drained away. The river has, both for Rou- 
mania and Bulgaria, the advantage of affording an 
admirable waterway, so that Bulgaria has a water- 



8 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

front along her northern margin as well as on the 
east. 

Serbia, whose northern boundary lies westward 
of the Iron Gates, looks, on the other hand, north- 
ward over the dried sea-basin of Hungary; her 
products can escape only by land routes, or, by 
permission of other Powers, by the Danube. Over 
the dried and fertile sea-basin of Hungary the 
northern Powers look jealously towards her land- 
locked territories, which block for them the road 
to the south. The fact that the old sea-basin has 
dried out more thoroughly to the north of Serbia 
than to the north and east of Bulgaria makes the 
one Power more " continental," the other more 
" peninsular," and is full of political significance. 
Further, the tolls exacted to cover the cost of the 
improvements at the Iron Gates makes the Danube 
a less convenient waterway for Serbia than for 
Bulgaria. 

Once again, in the mighty wrinkle of the Central 
Alps, upheaved high to heaven, the opening of the 
folds has exposed a central core of ancient and 
hardened rocks — the limestones are mostly marginal. 
In the Eastern Alps, but much more in the Dinaric 
Alps, as indeed in the folded mountains of the 
Balkan Peninsula generally, limestones predom- 
inate. Sometimes impure, and then leaving be- 
hind in their decay a not infertile earth, at other 
places, especially on the shores of the Northern 
Adriatic, the}' are almost pure. Washed by the 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 9 

rain, they dissolve away all but completely, and 
the gaunt, naked rocks of the karst country, 
almost waterless, almost treeless, cut off the more 
fertile inner lands from that sea, and make the 
Dinaric Alps, despite their relatively moderate 
elevation and their absence of permanent ice and 
snow, a more serious obstacle to transverse traffic 
than the lofty Central Alps. 

The result is to force most of the traffic of the 
peninsula into a narrow passage between the 
Western Coastal Mountains and the central earth 
block — a passage which opens southwards to the 
Mgean, and northwards to the lands of Central 
Europe, up and down which has swept through his- 
tory the tide of conquest; while the patient Slav 
peasant, trampled time and again beneath the feet 
of the contending parties, finds there, and there 
chiefly, the fertile patches of land for which his soul 
hungers. In this narrow belt, bounded westwards 
by the cruel karst hills, eastwards by the wooded, 
pasture-bearing central uplands, open widely at 
both ends, all but blocked at the sides— within this 
belt is concentrated most of the drama and most 
of the tragedy of the peninsula. Whether we think 
of the wistful Serb, with memories of past glories ; 
the Bulgar, looking down from his upland boundary 
to his compatriots in the storm-swept plains below ; 
the Greek, with his trader's instinct pushing in 7 and 
from the seaports of the coast ; the Albanian, sweep- 
ing down from his mountain in brigand's raid, 



10 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

or creeping onward in peaceful agricultural pene- 
tration; or, again, of Teuton and Hungarian in 
the north; of Italian watching the gaps of the 
Coastal Mountains ; of the cynical Turk, still finding 
peasants to work for him in the midst of the per- 
vading tumult — with whatever party our interests 
and our sympathies lie, we have to remember that 
here in this alleyway, which we, quite inappro- 
priately, still call Macedonia, in this gap between 
western mountain and central land mass, lies the 
key to the history of the whole peninsula. 

To this belt we shall have to devote much space 
in the following pages, but it may be well to note 
here that its northern entrance is Belgrade, where 
the Danube, after its general north-to-south course 
through Hungary, joins the Save and adopts that 
river's west-to-east course. Its southern gateway 
is Salonika, on the iEgean, which for a considerable 
number of years has been linked to Belgrade by rail 
through Uskub and Nish. But it would be a mis- 
take to give the impression that between these two 
great gates of the peninsula there runs a straight 
road. Rather should we compare the belt between 
Central Upland and Coastal Mountains to what the 
mountaineer calls a couloir — a passage between 
lofty rocks — but one which is itself encumbered 
and complex, so that more than one possible route 
exists through it. It is well to realize from the 
start that the railway between Salonika and Bel- 
grade does not owe its course wholly to the nature 



BALKAN PROBLEMS II 

of the surface; political considerations had also 
some influence — as nearly always in the peninsula. 

Again, just as Macedonia, in the broad sense, 
marks the gap between the western border of the 
Rhodope and the Coastal Mountains, and affords 
a passage-way through the peninsula, so also is 
there a similar gap between the north-eastern 
border of the Rhodope and the Balkans. From 
Nish in the western belt a road crosses the junction 
between the Rhodope and the Balkans near Sofia, 
and descends to a broad valley beyond, a valley 
which leads ultimately to Constantinople. If the 
upper end of this intermediate belt has been for 
long Bulgarian, the lower end is still a storm 
centre; and even if the Turk be ousted from 
Europe, difficult readjustments will require to be 
made in this region. 

Thus we should begin our detailed study of the 
Balkan Peninsula with a realization of the broad 
outlines of its structure (Fig. 2). A complex mass 
of upland, roughly triangular in shape, composed of 
hard, resistant rocks, rests with its apex on the 
Danube at Belgrade, its base stretching from the 
Black Sea to the ^Egean. Its southern end, once 
continuous with the central mass of Asia Minor 
lies sunk beneath the ^Egean, which is fringed with 
the inlets and peninsulas which mark its shattered 
margin. The two sides of the triangle are bordered 
by young folded mountains, in which limestones 
largely predominate. But, necessarily, there is no 



\\ 



12 



GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 







Fig. 2. — Structural Map of the Balkan Peninsula. 



r, Folded mountain chains. 2, The central earth block, or Rhodope 
Upland. 3, Transition areas. Note the change in direction 
alike of coast-line and of the mountain-folds in the region of 
the Drin : 3 Gulf, and the position of the Albanian Gap. The 
map should] be compared with Fig. 3 on p. 22. (In part after 
Cviji6.) 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 13 

sudden transition between central mass and folded 
margin. Balkans and western mountains alike 
are separated from the Central Upland by areas 
whose special feature is the presence of fertile 
basins, which alternate with low ridges, offering 
no great obstacle to through transit, and with 
mountain-tracts. Within these two belts lie the 
best lands of the peninsula, but they themselves 
are the natural highways of traffic from north to 
south and from south to north, from north-west 
to south-east, from Asia to Europe, from the 
JEgean to the European plains. 

It has been remarked by an acute observer that 
in the Balkan Peninsula the villages, contrary to 
the usual rule, tend to avoid the main road. 
Along that main road one may find a few large 
towns, but the smaller settlements, too well aware 
that the highway's main function throughout his- 
torical time has been to allow of the passage of 
armies, seek safety in the byways. But it has 
been the curse of the Balkan States that they could 
not, like small groups of individuals, thus avoid 
the main lines of communication. To fly to the 
hills to starve there ; to remain along the main 
route and be crushed by trampling feet : it is 
scarcely too much to say that these have been the 
main alternatives before the nations of that 
troubled land. 

We have said that the central mass of upland is 
roughly triangular in shape. In a quite general 



I 4 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

fashion we may say that the town of Belgrade is 
placed near the apex of the triangle, while Salonika 
and Constantinople occupy approximately the ends 
of the base line (cf. Figs. 2 and 3), and most of the 
more important towns of the peninsula are strung 
along the sides of the triangle, which are them- 
selves the main lines of communication. To grasp 
these facts is to realize some of the essential diffi- 
culties which have retarded the political develop- 
ment of the peninsula. 

It results necessarily from what has been said 
that, not only is there no natural centre within the 
peninsula about which, as nucleus, a great state 
might form, but that rivalries are almost certain 
to develop between small states. The fact that 
the peninsula is so easy of access from without — a 
point to which we shall return in a moment — means 
that weak peoples within will surge upwards from 
the plains on the main routes to mountains and 
uplands for safety. The danger past, they tend 
to descend, and are then confronted with the 
problem of how to divide among themselves the 
fertile plains which fringe the temporarily deserted 
highway. As fresh incursions from without are 
always liable to occur before internal adjustment has 
become possible, the problem is not one easily settled. 
We have already seen that incursion from the 
north is easy, because, beyond the Save and the 
Danube, the peninsula lies open to the wide Hun- 
garian plain; but it may be well to emphasize the 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 15 

contrast here with the Italian and Iberian Penin- 
sulas . Both of these are separated from continental 
Europe by mountain-chains, not absolutely con- 
tinuous from sea to sea, not, as history has shown, 
giving perfect and easily drawn frontier lines, but 
still of great value as constituting in each case a 
northern belt of relatively scantily-peopled land, 
permitting of the development of more or less 
demarcated nationalities respectively within and 
without the peninsular areas. In contrast with 
the Balkan region, it is worth note, the Iberian 
Peninsula is further remarkable in that it narrows 
where it is attached to the Continent — a fact which 
has helped to promote a distinction between intra- 
peninsular and extra-peninsular nationalities. On 
the other hand, the Balkan Peninsula is widest 
where it joins the Continent, no notable barrier 
to human progress separates the one region from 
the other, and, in association with this, many of 
the peoples of the peninsula have representatives, 
sometimes numerous representatives, beyond its 
largely artificial boundary lines. In other words, 
their interests are never wholly within the penin- 
sula — are sometimes largely outside it. 

What are its boundary lines ? As usually defined, 
the Balkan Peninsula is the land area to the south 
of a line drawn along the line of the Lower Danube, 
then of the Save and of its insignificant tributary, 
the Kulpa, and from the headwaters of this stream 
to the shore near Fiume. How artificial this 



16 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

" geographical " frontier is may be realized from 
the fact that only along part of its course does it 
correspond to political boundaries, and from the 
other fact that few maps of the region go so far 
to the north-west. In reality, while the southern 
part of the Balkan region is a true peninsula, the 
northern quadrilateral, separated from Asia Minor 
only by the narrow submerged river valleys which 
we call the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles respec- 
tively, is really continental, in climate as well as 
in many of its characters. Europe stops, not at 
Constantinople, but in the steppe region behind it, 
for the city itself has but little relation to the 
northern part of the peninsula on which it stands. 
If we bear in mind that the factors we have 
stressed— the absence of a natural centre, of 
isolation from surrounding regions, the existence 
of broad, diverging highways leading through the 
heart of the land — have been in action for long 
centuries, then the welter of races and of creeds 
within the peninsula, the jealousies and quarrels, 
the short-lived triumphs of one race or another, 
will be readily understood. Here within a total 
area of some 191,000 square miles — that is, con- 
siderably less than Spain — no less than six native 
races dwell, in addition to representatives of not 
a few others. These six races have among them 
three creeds and an excommunicated Church, and 
that in a country where the absence of a strong 
state gives the creed a political force which is 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 17 

often greater than race. But these facts, so 
fraught with historical significance, are themselves 
largely explicable by the structure of the country. 
It is to that structure, therefore, that we must 
devote careful attention if we wish to understand 
the political conditions. 

NOTE. 

Forms of Place-Names. 

In many parts of the Balkan Peninsula the towns and other 
geographical features have two names, Turkish and Slav 
respectively, while in some cases a third form, the Albanian, 
is added to these two. In this book an attempt has been 
made in each individual case to use the name rendered most 
familiar by recent publications, so that, for example, in 
Macedonia Turkish names have been generally employed, 
because the long Turkish occupation has made them most 
familiar. Thus, Uskub is used instead of the Slav equivalent 
of Skoplie, Monastir instead of Bitolia. Necessarily, however, 
consistency in such a matter is difficult. 

In the parts of the region which have been long under Slav 
rule or influence, the Slav forms are naturally employed. 
Since the Slavs themselves use for the most part the Cyrillic 
alphabet, the question of transliteration at once arises. But 
in the north-west of the Peninsula, notably in Croatia, the 
Latin alphabet is used either exclusively, or, as in parts of 
Serbia, in conjunction with the Cyrillic. There is thus what 
may be described as a recognized mode of conversion of the 
two alphabets. But this involves the use in the Latin alphabet 
of certain special characters, indicated below, whose pro- 
nunciation is not directly apparent to the English reader, nor, 
indeed, to the western European generally. There has in 
consequence been lately an increasing tendency, observable 
alike in English, French, and German publications, to use, 
in preference to this, modes of spelling which suggest, in the 
respective languages, the actual pronunciation. With some 
exceptions, notably in the case of place-names which have 
already become familiar to the general public in the Croatian 

2 



c 


is pronounced 


6 


i* tt 


r 


a i ) 


1 


ii 1 1 


i 


a a 


-• 


a a 



T 8 BALKAN PROBLEMS 

forms, such " phonetic " spellings have been generally adopted 
here. Thus it would seem foolish pedantry to adopt the form 
Xis in place of Nish, and as the pronunciation of the unfamiliar 
name Crna must necessarily be obscure except to the few, 
in introducing the word it seems desirable to present it in the 
comprehensible form of Tzerna. On the other hand, to spell 
Cetinje as Tzetinye would probably be to make the town 
unrecognizable. The following table indicates the relation of 
the two modes of spelling, the characters given first being the 
Croatian ones: 

tz — e.g., Marica — spelt here Maritza. 
ch — e.g., Metkovic — spelt here Metkovich. 
tch — e.g., Kacanik — spelt here Katchanik. 
v — e.g., Janina — spelt here Yanina (before 

terminal e, y becomes * — e.g., Skoplje = 

Skoplie) . 
sh — e.g., Nis — spelt here Nish. 
/ — e.g., Tundza — spelt here Tundja. 



REFERENCES. 

A good general account of Cvijic's views on the structure of 
the Balkan Peninsula, views which have been largely followed 
in the above description, will be found in an article by K. 
Peucker, " Cvijic on the Structure of the Balkan Peninsula " 
{Geographical Journal, xix., 1902). See also a short article 
by Professor Cvijic, " La Forme de la Peninsule des Balkans," 
in Le Globe, xi., 1900, and a critical account by Philippson, 
' Neuere Forschungen i. d. westlichen Balkanhalbinsel " 
{Geographische Zeitschrift, ix., 1903). Cvijic's own full account 
■ 'I Ids observations and deductions is published only in Serbian, 
but some account of them is given in his " Grundlinien d. 
Geographie u. Geologie v. Mazedonien u. Altserbien " {Peter - 
mann's Mitteilungen, Ergdnzungsheft, 162, 1908). See also 
Philippson, " La Tectonique de l'Egeide " (Annates de 
raphie, vii., 1898). 
For a special study of the region a large scale map is 
ntial. An excellent one is Der Europaische Orient, 
1 1,200,000, prepared by the K. K. Militcir-Geographische 
Institut in Vienna, which has all the basins shown by special 
1 olouring. 



CHAPTER II 

GEOGRAPHY AND POLITICS : THE INDEPENDENT 
STATES AND THEIR ASPIRATIONS 

Difficulties in the establishment of independent states — The 
four existing states — Constituent elements of Bulgaria — 
Her rivers and her Thracian and Macedonian ambitions — 
Greece and the iEgean — The lands of Serbia — Her outlet 
to the sea — iEgean or Adriatic ? — The struggle for Salonika 
and the North iEgean — The independent states and the 
extra-peninsular Powers. 

In the last chapter we indicated broadly the struc- 
tural features of the Balkan Peninsula, and sug- 
gested their political significance. We saw that 
the structure is such that there is within the 
peninsula no natural centre about which a great 
state might crystallize, and, further, that the 
existence of two broad, diverging lines of com- 
munication, running respectively north to south 
and north - west to south - east, facilitates the 
entrance of alien peoples, and makes the establish- 
ment of even small states difficult. There is no 
natural rallying-point. There is easy access from 
Asia, for the waterways of which geographers used 
to make so much are but drowned river valleys. 
There is no natural line of separation from the 
plains of Central Europe. Is it, then, the inevitable 

19 



20 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

destiny of the peninsula to be an annex either of 
a Central European state or of an Asiatic one ? 
Not a few diplomats and politicians have answered 
yes, but the inhabitants of the region have hitherto 
succeeded in defying them. They have, indeed, 
in many cases shown an almost superhuman 
tenacity in seeking their independence, or in main- 
taining it against the mighty of the earth. The 
poet may see in such struggles a manifestation of 
human greatness ; the geographer will suspect that 
the surface relief is exercising an influence for 
which the diplomat has failed to allow. Whether 
or not the stars in their courses are fighting against 
Turk and Teuton we know not, but we can at least 
bring some evidence which tends to show that, 
despite appearances, the structure of the land is 
not wholly in their favour. 

Let us note, then, in the first place quite gener- 
ally, the relation of the existing states to the sur- 
face forms and the underlying structural features. 

Before the 191 3 settlement — if we can call an 
arrangement which settled nothing a settlement — 
there were in the Balkan region four independent 
states — Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro. 
Bosnia and Herzegovina had passed wholly from 
the Turk into the hands of the Austrian, who had 
still earlier obtained Dalmatia and the small part 
of Croatia which comes into the peninsula as 
defined on p. 15. Separating Greece alike from 
the Slav States and from the Austrian lands was 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 21 

a broad belt of Turkish territory, which included 
a considerable part of the west coast (Albania and 
Epirus), the narrow, almost enclosed, region of 
Novibazar dividing Serbia from Montenegro, the 
area which extends southward from it to the 
iEgean, to which the vague name Macedonia is 
generally given in discussions of Turkish problems, 
and, finally, the belt between the southern boundary 
of Bulgaria and the ^Egean, which similarly is some- 
what vaguely called Thrace. The old boundaries 
are shown on Fig. 3. 

If we compare Fig 3 with Fig. 2, which is a 
generalized sketch-map showing the structure of 
the peninsula in more detail than is possible on 
Fig. 1, we can correlate the political facts just 
given with the structural points discussed in 
Chapter I. 

Let us begin with Bulgaria. What relation has 
this state to the three elements of the peninsula 
already described — that is, the central land core, 
the western mountains, and the west-to-east range 
of the Balkans ? As we see, the answer is that 
it includes the northern slope of the Central Upland, 
and the Balkan chain with the whole of its northern 
slope down to the Danube. As has been suggested 
(Fig. 2), between the core and the Balkans there 
lies a belt which in character is somewhat inter- 
mediate between the two. It is a region where 
recent earth movements have occurred, and so far 
resembles the mountains, but there is no recent 



22 



GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 



folding. Instead, we have basins, due to faulting, 
often separated by rocky sills, and containing 
fertile soil, different alike from that covering the 




Fig. 3. — The State Boundaries before 1912 and the Main 

Railway Routes. 

The separate parts of Turkey in Europe are named. (Cf. Fig. 2.) 

limestones of the young folded chains, and that 
which lies upon the old hard rocks of the core. 
Volcanic outbursts have also occurred in the not 
very distant past. 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 23 

So much for generalities, but we can in a word 
or two make the picture a little more real by adding 
a few details. The Balkans are not lofty, and they 
have a long, gentle, northern slope to the Danube, 
a slope which presents certain difficulties of com- 
munication, owing to the way in which the rivers 
are sunk in deep valleys, which sometimes suffers 
from want of water, but which contains not 
infertile land. The southern slope is steep, and at 
its foot lies a long, narrow, fertile valley, bounded 
to the south by a range of hills — the Anti-Balkans — 
which have been called the " shadow " of the 
Balkans. Beyond this range lies a wider valley, 
whose southern wall is formed by the slopes of the 
Rhodope or central core (see Fig. 5, p. 75). 

The narrow Inter - Balkan valley, a region of 
great tectonic interest, has a mild climate, modified 
by the northern screen of the Balkans, and contains 
much fertile land. We may think of it meantime 
as perfumed by the roses of Kazanlik, as rich in 
corn and wine, in contrast to the meadows and 
woods of the northern Balkan slope. 

The wider valley to the south of the Anti- 
Balkans, which is drained by the Upper Maritza 
River, contains the basin of Philippopolis, and is 
traversed by the great road to Constantinople, a 
road which, time and again, has been reached by 
armed hosts across the passes of the Balkans, 
though its natural northern entrance is by Nish 
and Sofia. Beyond the valley the Bulgarian lands 



24 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

slope upwards to the Rhodope, whose summits 
reach some 9,500 feet in the Rila Mountains. 

This was the Bulgaria of the days before the 
Balkan Wars of 191 2-1 3; functionally we may say 
a piece of garden ground along a highway, a high- 
way whose extremities were beyond the control 
of the gardeners, a garden whose southern and 
western walls were the crests of the Central Upland, 
whose frontage was the waterway of the Danube. 
Her ambitions, which seemed to be within realiza- 
tion as a result of the first Balkan war, and were all 
but blasted by the second, can best be realized by 
looking for a moment at her rivers . 

The merest glance at the map will show that the 
rivers of Bulgaria — and it is a character which they 
share with many of those of the peninsula gener- 
ally — have as a special feature a sudden elbow-turn 
on their course. Note, for example, the Tundja 
and the Maritza. The first runs for a time through 
the Inter-Balkan valley of which we have just 
spoken. Its natural and legitimate fate was to 
have continued this easterly direction till it fell 
into the Black Sea near Burgas, its function to 
have carried the attar and the corn of the valley 
to that port. Instead, at the moment when it 
seems within reach of this goal, note how it turns 
south at a right angle, in order ultimately to 
enter the Maritza at the town of Adrianople. 
Necessarily and inevitably with this violation of 
the " geographical ought " it bears with it the 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 25 

aspirations of the Bulgars south to many a bloody 
field, to the storm-point of Adrianople, to the 
devastated plains of Thrace. 

Turn next to the Maritza. In its turn it repeats 
the same " unnatural " behaviour. For a time it 
heads towards Constantinople; there is, indeed, a 
valley, now utilized by the railway, which would 
lead it close to that town. Again, however, the 
river avoids its geographical destiny, swings west- 
ward, and makes for the JEgea.11. There is thus 
added one more competitor to those who, further 
to the west, lay claim to the shore-line of that 
trader's sea. 

But even this is not all. Look far to the north 
and note how the Danube, like Upper Tundja, like 
Upper Maritza, has a west-to-east course, till, 
close to the Euxine, blocked by the rising ground 
of the Dobrudja, it turns north, beyond Bulgaria's 
ken, and is thus a contributing cause of that south- 
ward movement of which her recent history is full . 

The Danube is, of course, a supremely important 
waterway. But we should realize that this effect 
of the direction of rivers on policy does not neces- 
sarily depend upon their navigability. The 
Maritza, in point of fact, though a powerful 
stream, is so blocked with sandbanks that it is 
practically useless for navigation above Adrianople ; 
but it marks the line of easy passage by road and 
rail, and here, as always, men's thoughts travel 
with the river seawards. 



) 



26 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

We need not stop meantime to examine the 191 3 
frontier line of Bulgaria (see the coloured map) 
to show that it gives and yet withholds, tantalizes 
rather than satisfies, raises more problems than it 
solves. It is enough to have suggested that Bul- 
garia's desire to expand to the south and the south- 
east has its origin in certain geographical anomalies, 
themselves, as will be shown, due to the geological 
history of the peninsula. Her still unsatisfied 
longing for a westward and south-westward ad- 
vance, on the other hand, has its basis largely in 
politics and history. 

Without stopping to consider details, let us for 
a moment return to our garden metaphor. Beyond 
her western wall is a battle-ground, a region where 
the conflict waxes and wanes, but ceases never. 
When the struggle is hot, Bulgaria's massive 
retaining wall may serve as an asylum to refugees ; 
if relative calm reigns hosts and guests may 
descend over it to the plains beyond. The con- 
stant succession of these movements, movements 
which, by the way, almost always occur on the 
margin of Turkey's territories, has given Bulgaria 
an " interest," racial, political, religious, in the 
troubled land beyond her frontier. More than 
this, from her retaining wall she looks down upon 
a part of the long couloir, at the bottom of which 
lies the great southern gate— the port of Salonika, 
the magnet which has an irresistible attraction for 
almost all Balkan peoples. 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 27 

After this discussion of Bulgaria we may treat 
Greece more briefly. Let us look again at Fig. 2 
to answer the question, What is Greece ? Funda- 
mentally her land is obviously the southern end 
of the western mountain -chain, bounded on its 
inner side by a fragment of the central core. 
But — and here is Greece's great advantage — what 
should have been the continuation of that central 
core is drowned beneath the ^Egean, an all but land- 
locked, island-sprinkled sea, which runs up into 
the land in many inlets, separated by mountainous 
peninsulas, prolonged landwards by fertile basins. 
The sinking of the old ^Egean continent has given 
to Greece that facility of communication which is 
denied to the other States. Her destiny lies upon 
the sea, for it is the sea which has made her possible, 
and therefore her demand is ever for more and 
more coast-line. Northward she would creep along 
the Adriatic shore, eastward along the margin of 
the Northern ^Egean, and from island to island 
across the sea. The eastern shore of that sea also, 
is it not but a broken part of her land ? The only 
Balkan state with a Mediterranean element — if not 
a very strong one — in her population, Mediterranean 
in her climate and her products, her longing for 
shore-line and yet more shore-line, is something 
deeper and stronger than the others' desire for out- 
lets for their products. While they yield essential 
foodstuffs also, her land, fruitful only in places, 
gives chiefly luxuries, and her hopes for the future 



28 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

rest upon trade rather than upon the plough and 
the ox, the symbols of her Slav neighbours. 

Let us turn next to Serbia. Prior to the wars of 
1 91 2-1 3 her somewhat limited territories could be 
very simply described . Broadly speaking, her lands 
then consisted of the narrowed apex of the Rho- 
dope mass, with its northern slopes to the Save- 
Danube. Their eastern limit was the mountain- 
chain which marks the connection between Tran- 
sylvanian Alps and Balkans, their western the 
slopes of the Dinaric Alps. If we put the matter 
in another way, and recall the old sea of which we 
have spoken, which once covered the Hungarian 
plain, then we may say that the Serbia of 191 1 
consisted of the steep slopes which bounded that 
old sea to the south, plus a fragment of the old sea- 
floor near the present Save-Danube valley. Part 
of the Hungarian plain was included in the old 
Roman province of Pannonia, and in consequence 
the name Pannonian Basin is sometimes given 
to the sea which covered it at a still earlier stage. 
Thus, Serbia's most fertile corn-producing lands 
are formed by her share of the Pannonian sea-floor, 
her pastures and woods by the slopes of its steep 
southern shores. But, and this is an important 
point, a long inlet of the Pannonian Sea ran south- 
wards down what is now the Morava valley, so 
that fertile land is found well within the Rhodope 
mass. Thus, the ropewalks of Leskovatz (Fig. 4), 
themselves the result of the hemp-fields of the 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 29 

Upper Morava valley, are ultimately due to the 
soft deposits laid down in an old arm of the 
Tertiary sea. 

This upper part of the Morava valley was at- 
tached to Serbia by the Berlin Treaty of 1878, and 
represents the beginning of her southward exten- 
sion, an extension which continued in 191 2. But 
when the 1 878 line was drawn, it passed, not through 
the watershed between Morava and Vardar, the 
northern and southern streams, but through the 
Morava gorge near Vranya (see general map) . This 
is due to the fact that the watershed, which is the 
parting line between Black Sea and JEgean, is very 
low, only 1,500 feet above sea-level, and quite in- 
distinctly marked. Farther west, indeed, there is 
no definite parting between one of the tributaries 
of the Morava and one of those of the Vardar, the 
two in wet weather having a common origin. This 
condition is believed by Professor Cviji6 to be due 
to the fact that an arm from a southern sea at one 
period united with the southward-stretching inlet 
of the old Pannonian Basin. However this may 
be, the result, as we have already seen, is to afford 
a relatively easy passage for road and rail from 
Belgrade to Salonika, and thus to turn Serbia's 
thoughts to the JEgean. 

Serbia's western boundary, we have said, is 
formed by the Dinaric Alps. Politically the 
frontier is for the most part the Austrian territory 
of Bosnia. Beyond the limits of that land, the 



30 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

frontier in 191 1 ran south-east, and was constituted 
by the sandjak of Novibazar, a narrow belt of hilly 
land, which, as we have already noted, divided 
Serbia from Montenegro till the last Balkan wars. 
Novibazar is largely mountain-girdled, the most 
noticeable gap in its encircling mountains being at 
the south-eastern extremity, where the town of 
Mitrovitza (see Figs. 3 and 4) marks the entrance- 
gate. 

Under Turkish rule Novibazar was largely a 
roadless no man's land, and the curious gap in the 
railway which would otherwise have run from 
Sarajevo (Sarayevo) through the sandjak to Uskub 
and Salonika should be carefully noted. The gap 
is the witness of the frustration, up till the present, 
of Austria's Drang nach Osten. 

By comparing Figs. 2 and 3, and noting the 
position of the sandjak in the two, we perceive that 
its southern end is marked by a curious curving o 
the folds of the Dinaric Alps, which is associated 
with a change in the direction of the coast-line 
taking place in the vicinity of the estuary of the 
River Drin. This is a region of great importance, 
which we shall have to consider in some detail, for 
the direction of the mountain-folds suggests the 
possibility that Serbia may find here the free sea 
outlet for which she yearns. Here, indeed, there 
is a lateral couloir connecting with the main 
Belgrade-Salonika one, and the question whether 
it can be utilized by modern means of communica- 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 31 

tion is one of the most important geographical 
problems of the whole peninsula. Serbia at least 
has few doubts on the subject, and the outlet to 
the Adriatic was one of the motives which drove 
her into the 191 2 war, and led to the making of the 
secret treaty with Bulgaria, which was again the 
main cause of the quarrel between the two, and 
thus of the second Balkan war. 

Serbia's ambitions in the direction of the 
Adriatic, like Montenegro's desire for the posses- 
sion of Scutari, were, however, frustrated by the 
Powers, who insisted upon the erection of an 
independent Albania, and thus concentrated the 
aspirations of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece alike on 
the north-western corner of the iEgean. This 
led, naturally enough, to quarrels among the three 
larger Balkan States, and while Serbia and Greece 
agreed to adjust the questions at issue between 
them, their settlement — we may frankly admit — 
was to some extent at the expense of Bulgaria, 
whose disappointment led her into the short, 
and to her disastrous, campaign of 191 3. But 
there is the possibility that some at least of the 
Powers foresaw that an independent Albania might 
lead to quarrelling among the Balkan Powers, 
and that their motive in supporting its erection 
was not wholly uninfluenced by this possibility. 
For we must remember that the interests of the 
extra-peninsular Powers are best served by conflicts 
among the independent states. 



32 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Be this as it may, the structure of the lands in 
Serbia's possession before 191 2 was such as to 
suggest to her two natural lines of expansion — one 
to the south-east, which had in it the risk of col- 
lision with Bulgaria, the other to the south-west, 
which would bring her to the open sea. The 
European Powers blocked the latter route, and, 
driven to the former, Serbia, as we have said, 
naturally found herself in conflict with Bulgaria. 
These are the facts of past history ; at a later stage 
we shall say something of future possibilities, but 
before doing that it will be necessary to consider 
in another chapter the encumbered lateral couloir 
which leads from the new Serbian boundary to the 
sea (Fig. 4). We may add that, though Serbia 
doubtless desires to add Bosnia and Herzegovina 
to her lands, there is no evidence that she seeks in 
them a commercial outlet to the Adriatic. 

Before leaving Serbia there is one other point 
which must be mentioned. We have said that 
her land includes parts of the floor of the old 
Pannonian Sea. Now, except for the line of the 
Save and the Danube, no natural obstacle separates 
the Serbian from the Hungarian parts of the old 
sea-floor. Such rivers are, it is true, strategic 
obstacles in time of war, but they offer no barrier 
to free intercommunication in time of peace. The 
result has been such that we find that Serbia has 
a political but not a racial boundary to the north, 
and that for a reason to be considered. In the 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 33 

peninsula generally the Turk oppressed the 
peasant to the extent and in the degree to which 
his power permitted at the different stages of his 
history. When the oppression became intolerable, 
the peasants tended to find refuge in the mountains 
and uplands : thus the Montenegrins found a per- 
manent shelter in their own mountain-girt land. 
But Hungary relatively early succeeded in driving 
the Turk back, and thus her lands represented for 
the oppressed Slavs of the north of the peninsula 
the refuge which those farther south had to seek 
in mountain fastnesses. The result was to help 
to produce the large Slav population of Southern 
Hungary, to give the independent Serbia which 
slowly emerged from Turkish chaos interests to 
the north, far beyond her own confines. This fact 
has greatly complicated her relations with Austria- 
Hungary. Within the frontiers of Serbia the pas- 
sionate Slav desire to own plough-land, in however 
insignificant an amount, has been largely satisfied; 
outside her boundaries, and especially in Bosnia, 
the condition of the ploughing Slav peasant is 
scarcely, if at all, better under the Austrian than 
under the Turk. What wonder, then, if the Serb 
within and the Serb without alike long for a Greater 
Serbia ! 

We may add that this peculiarity of having 
many compatriots under alien rule is not peculiar 
to Serbia; it is a result of Turkish rule which 
appears, to a greater or a lesser extent, in all the 

3 



34 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Balkan States. There are many Bulgars in Rou- 
mania ; there are many Greeks in Asia Minor : such 
facts greatly complicate home politics in each case. 

The last independent Balkan State, tiny Monte- 
negro, may be dismissed meantime in very few 
words. Her lands cover the south-east extremity 
of the Dinaric Alps, a fragment of the depression in 
which the Lake of Scutari lies, and an infinitesimal 
stretch of coast-line. Historically she is a Cave of 
Adullam, a mountain-tract in which the bold, the 
strong, the crafty, have found refuge from the 
Turk, a nation whose present prince has character- 
istically proved not inferior to the Austrian in guile . 
Her most urgent unsatisfied ambition is the posses- 
sion of Scutari, which in any new adjustment can 
hardly be denied to her. 

We have thus indicated generally the kind of 
land which was in the possession of each of the 
four independent states before the last Balkan 
wars, and have endeavoured, as impartially as may 
be, to set forth the lines of development which the 
structure of the peninsula renders " natural " to 
each state. If this were all, it might be supposed 
that the three larger states could be left to adjust 
matters in their own way — to settle whether Serbia's 
destiny lay towards Durazzo or Salonika, whether 
Greece, Bulgaria, or Serbia's claims to that much- 
contested port were greatest; to solve, if they can, 
the difficult question of the fate of Macedonia. 
But unfortunately for the states, a number of 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 35 

extra-peninsular Powers are interested, directly or 
indirectly, in the settling up. Of these two, 
Austria-Hungary and Turkey, though even in 
Turkey's case the centre of gravity lies now outside 
the peninsula, have possessions within it, posses- 
sions which, both would probably frankly admit, 
have for them a significance which bears no par- 
ticular relation to either the wishes or the welfare 
of the inhabitants. Austria, especially, regards her 
peninsular lands from the point of view of Welt- 
politik, not from that of their cultivators. Both 
states, we must repeat, are (or were) drawn towards 
the peninsula by the magnetism of its two great 
furrows, with their contained highways. In ad- 
dition to the Dual Monarchy and Turkey, which 
actually own lands within the region, other Powers, 
especially Russia and Italy, have interests therein, 
as, to a minor degree, have most of the Powers of 
Europe. But for our immediate object at present, 
which is to make clear the connection between the 
land forms of the peninsula and its internal politics, 
only Turkey and Austria- Hungary are of impor- 
tance. We shall therefore devote the two next 
chapters to their possessions at the period prior to 
the first Balkan war. 



CHAPTER III 

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: HER BALKAN LANDS AND 
HER BALKAN INTERESTS 

The ports of Austria-Hungary and their position — Strategic 
importance of Dalmatia — The motives of the Austrian 
advance into the peninsula — The karst country and its 
access from the sea — Characters of the central mountain 
zone- — The hilly region near the Save — Reasons for the 
arrested economic development of the Austrian possessions 
in the peninsula. 

In the last chapter we not only discussed the general 
characters of the lands of the independent states, 
but also showed that the nature of the surface 
was such as to tempt each to expand in certain 
definite directions. Austria-Hungary has large 
areas of fertile land in Central Europe. Her Balkan 
lands are sometimes very unproductive, are no- 
where so rich as to attract merely because of their 
natural wealth. What, then, has been the motive 
which led the Dual Monarchy to expand south- 
westward ? Such a question naturally suggests 
itself at the outset of our special study of her intra- 
peninsular possessions. 

Two motives at once present themselves, and 
now one, now the other, has predominated in her 
policy. In the first place certain regions within 

36 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 37 

the peninsula have a strategic value in relation to 
her territories outside its boundaries, and in the 
second her existing Balkan possessions mark a 
possible line of advance towards Salonika, and 
thus a possible way of participating directly in the 
trade with the east. Let us consider each motive 
in a little detail. 

If we glance once again at Fig. i we may realize 
without difficulty that the complex ramifications 
of the Alps and their continuations tend to cut off 
alike the vast plains of Hungary and the hills, 
valleys, and uplands of Austria from the sea. 
Both countries indeed have but a very limited 
coast-line. At first sight, then, it might be thought 
that the motive for the extension into the Balkan 
Peninsula was the desire for a broader sea-front. 
In point of fact, the whole long stretch of Dalmatia 
has, from this point of view, extraordinarily little 
significance. Its shore is so cut off from the 
interior as to be of little value. Austria and 
Hungary have, however, each a considerable com- 
mercial port. The two— Trieste and Fiume — lie 
in little notches where the peninsula of Istria joins 
the mainland, Trieste being in the northern notch 
and Fiume in the southern. On Trieste the 
Italians look jealously, and it is perilously near the 
Italian frontier. Were the coast-line of Dalmatia, 
and especially its northern island belt, in the pos- 
session of another Power, then the two ports of 
the Dual Monarchy would be within the jaws of a 



38 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

vice, which might close at any moment. The 
possession of Dalmatia is thus in Austria's view a 
safeguard, a strategic necessity. 

Dalmatia is necessary to protect the coast-line 
of Croatia with its port of Fiume, Bosnia and 
Herzegovina are necessary to protect Dalmatia 
from an attack from the interior — so the argument 
goes. Montenegro's minute sea-front, the resolu- 
tion of the Powers to create an independent Albania, 
are both facts related to the same supposed strategic 
necessity. More than this, further to the south 
the Strait of Otranto is but some forty-five miles 
wide, which means that Italy's determination that 
Austria shall keep her hands off" South Albania 
is only matched by the tenacity with which the 
latter Power holds on to Dalmatia. The result 
is that the fate of a large tract of land has been 
settled, not by the interests or the desires of its 
inhabitants, but by the large strategic needs of the 
adjacent Powers. 

It would, however, be unfair to blame Austria 
only for this condition of affairs. She has treated 
Dalmatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina as but pawns 
in her political schemes, she has shown a cynical 
disregard of elementary human rights, but she has 
not been alone in this attitude of mind. The 
sudden awakening of the European conscience to 
the rights of the little nations has perhaps not been 
wholly unrelated to the fact that some of these 
nations have shown a remarkable capacity both 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 39 

for defence and attack. If these Austrian lands 
are to win freedom in their turn, it can only be by 
showing that they have the will to demand their 
rights and the strength to press their claim. 

Austria's second motive in advancing into the 
peninsula has been in the hope of advancing, step 
by step, upon Macedonia and Salonika. Here, 
again, before we condemn her, we must remember 
that not a few publicists, hopeless of the develop- 
ment of the power of self-government among the 
peoples here, and convinced of the rottenness of 
Turkey's rule, have seen in an Austrian advance 
the best hope of a desperate land. This policy did 
not perhaps take sufficient account of the fact that 
the Balkan Slavs might not share the Teutonic 
passion for being ruled, for the blessing commonly 
described as a " firm Government "; but we must 
remember that the Treaty of Berlin gave Austria 
certain rights over the sandjak of Novibazar, rights 
which might be interpreted as leaving open the 
road to a future advance. These rights were aban- 
doned by Austria at the time of the annexation of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina (1908). This abandon- 
ment has been advanced as a reason for believing 
that she has given up all designs upon Salonika; 
but we have to remember that the interests of 
Austria and of Hungary in the Balkans are not 
identical, and it has been suggested that Austria's 
retreat was a mask to cover a proposed advance on 
the part of Hungary, an advance by the easier 



40 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

route through Serbia. This is not the place for a 
full discussion of such questions; the main point 
to make clear is that Austria's annexation of Bosnia 
and Herzegovina, itself one of the causes of the 
present war, was not motived primarily by the 
economic value of the lands seized. 

We must proceed next to such a description of 
them as will enable us to understand why they are 
of little economic value to Austria, and to consider 
the question whether there is a possibility that they 
could be attached for their own advantage to a 
Greater Serbia, or to some other Slav state. 

In the first chapter we stated that the Dinaric 
Alps — using the word in the wide sense — are a 
continuation to the south-east of the Eastern Alps. 
They differ, however, in a considerable number of 
ways from those Alps, notably in the presence of 
an inner belt of rocks, chiefly sands and marls 
(flysch beds), which weather to form more or less 
fertile, undulating ground. The question where 
the line is to be drawn between the Eastern Cal- 
careous Alps and the Dinaric chain is a geological 
one of some difficulty. The line certainly does 
not correspond to any political frontier, nor does it 
coincide with the geographical northern boundary 
of the- peninsula, as defined on p. 15. The last- 
named boundary is indeed a line drawn purely for 
the sake of convenience ; it is the western extension 
of the Danube-Save furrow, and nothing more. 
According to some geologists, the Dinaric Alps 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 41 

should be regarded as beginning south of a line 
between Gorz and Laibach . South of such a line we 
come into the karst country — that is, the region 
of predominating limestone — where surface streams 
are few or absent, for drainage is underground in 
character, and the soil is scanty, being generally 
present only in depressions, surrounded by naked 
rocks . 

But if we regard the Dinaric chain as rising so 
far to the north as Gorz and Laibach, we have to 
realize that at first it is narrow and not lofty. The 
possibility of utilizing Fiume as a commercial port 
depends upon the fact that its mountain-backing 
is, relatively, easily crossed by road and rail. The 
deep inlet of the Gulf of Quarnero, the fact that the 
Save flows from the north-west, brings the Adriatic 
Sea nearer to that river at this point than at any 
other. We may put the matter in another way 
by saying that the old Pannonian Sea came nearer 
the present Adriatic here than elsewhere, or again by 
saying that the depression which formed the North 
Adriatic penetrated the mountain-rim more deeply 
here than farther south. In any case the result is 
that Fiume marks the position of a gate — the only 
gate, though not a wholly satisfactory one — ^which 
opens from the Adriatic to the Hungarian plain. 

Beyond this narrow region the Dinaric Vhain 
widens considerably, and runs in a south-east 
direction, parallel to the coast-line, down to the 
estuary of the Drin — that is, to the Gulf of San 






42 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Giovanni di Medua. It is widest in the centre of 
Bosnia; it is nowhere high enough to reach the 
present snow-line, the highest peak — apart from 
the North Albanian Alps — being Durmitor in 
Montenegro, which is not very much over 8,000 feet, 
while between 6,000 and 7,000 feet is the more 
usual height of the big peaks ; but it offers obstacles 
to transverse traffic which are out of all proportion 
to its elevation. 

The reason for this is to be found in the preva- 
lence of limestone, with a resultant barrenness and 
absence of river valleys, and the fact that the region, 
like so much of the peninsula, has been subjected 
to recent earth movements, which are perhaps still 
going on, and greatly complicate the relief. 

As regards the geological structure, and to some 
extent also as regards the surface forms, the wide 
chain can be divided into three belts. These are: 
the marginal chains, usually littoral, which consist 
for the most part of very pure limestones; the 
central zone, loftier than the first, where impure 
limestones are intermixed with old, often metalifer- 
ous rocks; an inner zone of flysch — that is, of soft 
marly and sandy beds — which slopes down to the 
Save. Let us take the three in order. 

The limestone belt, giving rise to typical karst 
country, runs through Istria, includes the islands 
and mainland of Dalmatia, and a considerable part 
of Herzegovina. It is continued onward into 
Montenegro and Albania, but meantime we may 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 43 

neglect it there. The limestone hills, naked and 
blazing, mostly rise straight from the shore, and, 
with few exceptions, of which the Narenta is the 
most noticeable, are crossed by no important 
rivers. The coast-line is fringed by numerous 
islands, mostly elongated in the direction of the 
shore, which also consist of limestone, and the 
mainland is margined by channels (" canali "), 
elongated in the same direction, so characteristic 
in appearance that physical geographers speak of 
the region as constituting a special type of coast 
(" Dalmatian type "). Obviously the islands and 
channels alike are due to the fact that there has 
been recent subsidence here. The mountain-folds 
run parallel to the coast; when the North Adriatic 
was formed by the foundering of an old continental 
area, part of the folded region sank also. Where 
the sinking was greatest islands were formed, where 
it was less the water entered the valley, and the 
mountain-fold formed a peninsula, thus turning the 
old valley into a channel. 

From one point of view we have here all the con- 
ditions necessary for the production of good ports, 
for the channels and islands give the possibility of 
shelter. But the steep limestone hills behind cut 
off these potential ports from the interior, and, 
except in the case of Fiume, the limestone hills are 
but the advance guard of loftier hills, which have 
also to be traversed before a commercial hinterland 
can be reached. 



44 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

But to the rule that the limestone hills rise 
steeply from the shore two regions offer notable 
exceptions. One is the peninsula of Istria, which, 
though composed of limestone, is in part of no great 
elevation. The second exception comes within 
the Balkan Peninsula. From the Canale della 
Montagna — that is, from about the position of the 
port of Zara — as far south as the port of Spalato, 
the hills retreat, and there is a low coastal strip of 
some width. Karst conditions prevail here also, 
but in this tract there were in Roman times a 
considerable number of flourishing towns, and it 
has certain possibilities not at present taken advan- 
tage of. Further, the coastal strip here is tra- 
versed by the not inconsiderable River Kerka, at 
whose mouth lies Sebenico, while Scardona, further 
inland, was important in Roman times. Owing to 
the steplike nature of the land, however, the 
course of the Kerka is obstructed by waterfalls, and 
it does not offer an easy passage to the interior. 
But from Sebenico a road and a railway penetrate 
inland, though neither takes advantage of the 
Kerka valley, and neither gives direct connection 
with the Save valley. More important in earlier 
days was the road from Spalato and Salona to 
Gradiska on the Save, which was the main line of 
communication between the Hungarian plain and 
the Adriatic both in Roman and in medieval times. 
There is not yet complete railway communication 
by this route, though a railway line runs a short 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 45 

distance inland from Spalato, and there is a road 
which affords access to some fertile basins. Spalato 
has the further interest that, while south of it the 
karst hills again approach the coast closely, they 
have behind them a gap which permits a road to 
be carried from the immediate hinterland of Spalato 
to the Narenta basin. Railway construction here 
would be easy, but it would, of course, only serve 
the coastal belt. 

The only other important coastal feature, till 
we reach the vicinity of the Drin, is the wide 
Narenta estuary, up which passes the only exist- 
ing line of rail which connects the coast of Dalmatia 
with the Hungarian railway system. To the River 
Narenta we shall return. 

As contrasted with these coastal karst chains, 
we find that the central mountain zone shows 
karst phenomena only where limestone predomin- 
ates, and that even the limestone tracts are less 
forbidding than on the shore, because the impurity 
of the rock allows of the formation of a deeper soil . 
But the special feature of this zone is the presence 
in it of elongated, flat-bottomed basins, the karst- 
polyen, which are swampy in certain places or at 
certain seasons, may have temporary rivers run- 
ning through them, but for the greater part of the 
year, at least, are drained by underground channels, 
the water sinking through the limestone. Their 
flat floors are often covered by fertile soil, and it is 
here that cultivation is chiefly carried on. They 



46 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

tend to be elongated in a direction parallel to the 
mountain-folds, and there is still some dispute as 
to the degree to which they depend upon tectonic 
causes — i.e., upon the structural features of the 
mountain-chains — or as to whether they can be 
regarded as practically due only to the effect of 
acidulated water upon the limestone. The ques- 
tion does not affect us greatly, but we have to note 
that the absence of rivers means that the polyen 
are isolated, no valley or natural line of communica- 
tion connecting one fertile basin with another. 
Apart from the land question, which is urgent in 
Bosnia, one of the great grievances of the peasant 
under Austrian rule is that the roads and railways 
which have been made have mostly been of 
strategic value, and the construction of the ways 
necessary to put the fertile belts in free communica- 
tion with one another has not been seriously taken 
in hand. 

Rivers, we have suggested, are absent in Dal- 
matia because of the way in which the water sinks 
into the limestone. But this phenomenon depends, 
of course, upon the relation of the amount of water 
to the porosity of the limestone, and to its water 
content. There is much evidence to show that 
the disappearance of rivers from some of the 
polyen is a recent phenomenon. Diminution of 
atmospheric moisture since the Ice Age and local 
elevation of the surface have both been put for- 
ward as possible causes. We have already stated 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 47 

that this central zone has other rocks, of ancient 
types, in addition to limestones. In such rocks 
rivers tend to arise in normal fashion, and while 
small streams may be swallowed up as they emerge 
on the limestone areas, a powerful stream, fed by 
mountain torrents, may survive. This is what 
happens in the case of the Narenta, which, rising 
in lofty mountains, has by the time it reaches a 
karst area volume and swiftness enough to over- 
come the effects of the limestone. Like the Nile 
through the desert, so the Narenta contrives to 
flow through the karst as a powerful, mud-carrying 
stream, as devoid of tributaries as is the Nile in 
Egypt. Owing to the absence of tributaries and 
of surface weathering, the river tends to run in a 
deep canyon, and as it cuts its way down through 
the limestone, it taps the ground-water, which 
gushes out in springs in the canyon walls. Its 
impetus carries it even through the thirsty coastal 
belt, and the wide valley of its lower reaches is a 
polye with the unusual feature of surface drainage. 
Mostar, the capital of Herzegovina, is placed in a 
wide and fertile part of its course. 

The Narenta carries down a large amount of 
detritus, with which it tends to silt up its estuary, 
but the Austrians have improved the channel, so 
that Metkovich, near the mouth, has become the 
port of Mostar, as also of Sarajevo in the interior. 

The narrow-gauge railway, like the old Roman 
road, follows the river through all its lower wide 



48 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

valley. Farther up, however, where it reaches the 
belt of karstland, the stream lies at the bottom of 
a deep canyon. Here the Turkish road left the 
stream, as did one of the Roman roads; but the 
modern engineer has boldly carried road and rail 
through the heart of the gorge. The canyon 
region passed the river, which here comes at an 
abrupt angle from the south, is quitted, and the 
road and railway cross the Ivan Saddle, at a height 
of over 3,000 feet, in order to traverse the central 
chain and so reach Sarajevo. This is rendered 
possible on the railway by a rack-and-pinion 
arrangement, a costly plan, which seems to show 
that the line cannot acquire any great commercial 
significance. 

Arrived at Sarajevo, the line branches. One 
arm runs north to the Save, another turns south 
and ends " in the air " at the frontier of Novibazar, 
as a pathetic monument of an unachieved purpose 

(Fig- 7). 

We have described this line in some detail, for 

it is essential to make clear that, while the lower 
Narenta valley has free communication with the 
Adriatic seaboard, Bosnia generally is for all 
practical purposes unconnected with that seaboard . 
By whatever route Serbia in the future is to export 
her cattle, it is not likely to be by Sarajevo and 
Mostar. Again, if Novibazar cannot reach the 
coast save by the same route, it is likely to remain 
undeveloped. 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 49 

We have still to speak of the third belt of the 
Dinaric Alps, the inner or flysch zone, which slopes 
downward to the Save. This region is traversed 
by rivers of the normal type, with manifold tribu- 
taries. It is largely forested, especially with oak 
and beech; it drains to the Save, and is relatively 
easy of access from that river. Mingled with the 
soft flysch rocks are beds of serpentine, which 
form hills, and the whole country has a Central 
European aspect as contrasted with the " Eastern " 
appearance of the karst. But these statements are 
true only of the belt comparatively near the Save. 
The central chain seems to have undergone recent 
uplift, as compared alike with the flysch zone 
and with the coastal belt. One consequence is 
that those numerous rivers — Drina, Bosna, Verbas, 
and so forth — which on the map make so imposing 
a show, do not, as one would suppose, lead straight 
into the heart of Bosnia. Their upper courses are 
obstructed by rapid and waterfalls, or run through 
canyons, thus increasing the aloofness of the 
central belt, with its fertile polyen. Geographic- 
ally more or less cut off alike from coastal strip and 
from the hilly land near the Save, it is possible that 
this zone may find its easiest line of development 
westwards into Serbia by the Western Morava, or 
southwards into that lateral couloir of which we 
have already spoken. This, however, leads us to 
what were Turkish lands till 191 2, and so to the 
next chapter. 

4 



5 o GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

If, meantime, we sum up the essential points as 
regards the Austrian possessions within the Balkan 
Peninsula, we must note first that Austria's in- 
terests in them are primarily strategic; it is not 
her direct concern to satisfy the natural aspira- 
tions of their present inhabitants. Second, even 
had her prime motive been their commercial 
development, it is by no means clear that she is 
placed in the most favourable position to further 
this. The policy of the European Powers generally 
in the Balkans has been peace, or the appearance 
of peace, at any price, and Austria may feel that 
to produce a superficial order, a partial " European- 
ization " is all that could be reasonably required 
of her, in view of the deeper motives of her 
advance. 

Again, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as we have tried 
to show, form a little block of mountain-land, very 
difficult of access and development from the sea ; 
almost equally difficult of development from the 
north-eastern slope, on account of the absence of 
those long continuous valleys which lead into the 
heart of the Central Alps. The difficulty of 
development is greatly increased by the presence 
of isolated fertile basins in the interior. The 
chances of an economic development of the region 
would be greatly increased were it not cut off 
politically from the lands which bound it on the 
east and the south. 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 51 



NOTE. 



The great interest of the karst country, and the number of 
problems connected with the structure of the Dinaric Moun- 
tains, have led to a great output of papers upon the western 
region. We can mention only a few which wiU enable those 
especially interested to follow up the subject. A general 
account of Bosnia-Herzegovina will be found in Schliiter, 
"Die osterreichischen-ungarische Okkupations-gebiet u. sein 
Kiistenland " (Geographische Zeitschrift, xi., 1905). See also 
Cvijic, " Morphologische u. Glaciale Studien aus Bosnien, der 
Hercegovina u. Montenegro " (Abhandlungen d. K. K. Geo- 
graphischen Gesellschaft in Wien, ii. and iii., 1900 and 1901); 
Grund, " Die Oberflachenformen d. Dinarischen Gebirges " 
{Zeitschrift d. Gesellschaft f. Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1908); Cvijic, 
" Bildung u. Umbildung d. Dinarischen Rumpfflache " 
(Petermann's Mitteilungen, 55, 1909) ; Grund, " Beitrage z. 
Morphologie d. Dinarischen Gebirges " (Geographische Abhand- 
ungen, ix. 1910). 

\ 



CHAPTER IV 

TURKISH POSSESSIONS AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE 

WAR OF 191 2 

Difficulties of nomenclature — Contrast of Macedonia and 
Thrace with Albania and Epirus — General characters of 
Thrace — Position and importance of Kavala — The basins 
of Macedonia — The coastal mountain - ranges and the 
Albanian Gap — Serbia and the Albanian coast-line — The 
Via Egnatia. 

The nomenclature of the: regions which were in 
Turkish possession at the time of the outbreak of 
the 191 2 war is a matter of some difficulty. Turkey 
in Europe has, as is well known, diminished by a 
process of slow attrition, and it is a nice question 
for purists in geographical nomenclature to decide 
the fate of a familiar name, when the province to 
which it was once applied is cut in two by a new 
political frontier. For our purpose here it is 
desirable to simplify the terminology as much as 
possible, more especially as for the most part the 
names have now only historical interest. Thus we 
shall use the name Thrace for that part of Turkey 
which, prior to the wars of 191 2-1 3, stretched from 
the Bulgarian frontier to the ^Egean, and from 
Constantinople to the vicinity of the port of 
Kavala. Macedonia we shall call the region which 

52 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 53 

extends from Novibazar to Salonika, and east- 
ward from Albania to the meridian of Kavala. 
The northern part of this region is sometimes 
called Old Serbia; it again became Serbian terri- 
tory in 191 3. Albania is the coastal strip which 
extends from Montenegro to Epirus, which again 
marches with pre-1912 Greece. 

Of these, Albania and Epirus are mountain- 
regions, limestones, and thus country of the karst 
character, being frequent, but not universal. 
Macedonia and Thrace, especially the former, are 
regions of basins and hills, the basins being some- 
times still filled with lake water, as in the case 
of Lakes Okhrida, Presba, and Ostrovo, but oftener 
dry and floored with fertile soil. 

For the present we may dismiss Thrace in a few 
words. Apart from that eastern area, largely 
steppe, which is still (spring, 1915) Turkish, it con- 
sists of the southern slopes of the Rhodope mass, 
pierced by the great River Maritza, and traversed 
by some other rivers, of which the Mesta is the 
most important. Close to the shore there are fertile 
basins, showing, though to a less marked extent, 
that character of isolation which has had so pro- 
found an influence on the history of the plains of 
Macedonia. As the rivers are often marshy at 
their mouths, the coast road, like the railway, 
though to a less extent, tends to run some little 
distance inland. In the vicinity of Kavala, how- 
ever, a spur of the hills forces the road close to the 



54 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

sea, while the railway runs inland through hilly 
country. Not far from Kavala are the remnants of 
the ancient historic town of Philippi (Fig. 6, p. 91 ), 
which owed its origin not only to gold workings in 
the neighbourhood, but much more to the fact that 
it was the eastern gate of Macedonia, a gate easily 
blocked by a defending force. When after the 
first Balkan War the Bulgarians were excluded by 
their allies alike from Salonika and the fertile 
basin of Serres, with its possible outlet of Orfani, 
the}^ desired passionately to have Kavala, which 
was, however, equally lost to them. 

Macedonia, as we have already suggested, con- 
sists essentially of the Vardar valley, together with 
the headwaters of the Morava, and the low water- 
shed between the two rivers. But if we think of 
it in this way as primarily a Durchgangsland, a 
passage land — what we have called a couloir — 
we have to remember that north of Uskub a by- 
way leads through the historic plain of Kosovo 
(the Amselfeld of German maps, or Plain of the 
Blackbirds), and so either by the I bar to the 
Western Morava, and thus to Serbia, or through 
Novibazar into Bosnia. In other words, Macedonia 
is a land through which highroads may be driven, 
not a highway. 

To the surrounding Powers, not unnaturally, 
this conception of Macedonia as a passage-way 
has been the dominant one through its long 
troublous history. But from another point of view 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 55 

we may say that it is equally a land of fertile 
basins. We spoke in the last chapter of the 
poly en of Bosnia. Macedonia has polyen, too 
though these do not necessarily show the level 
floor, the subterranean drainage of the karst- 
polyen of Bosnia. They do, however, show the 
same feature of tending to run parallel to the 
mountain-folds, and thus of forming disconnected 
rows, each separate basin being often somewhat 
difficult of access. If we direct our attention only 
to these basins, Macedonia may well seem a geo- 
graphical paradise. Its plains are floored with 
fertile soil, are well watered, and the many streams 
make irrigation possible where the climate renders 
this necessary. Round about the gentle slopes 
rise mountains, not generally lofty, furnished with 
wood and with pasture, so that the inhabitants 
may seem to have almost all the resources of 
Nature within their reach. The towns, for example 
Monastir, Uskub, Diakova, Vodena, etc., are 
generally placed in each case at the margin of the 
plain, above the risk of flooding or swamps, within 
easy reach of pure water, and of the resources of 
the hills; while the streams, as they tumble into 
the plain, give the possibility of water power, by 
means of which local raw material could be manu- 
factured into the necessities of life. But Mr. 
Bernard Shaw says that heaven and hell are but 
different aspects of the same thing, and in Mace- 
donia we must admit that it is the second aspec 



56 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

which has been tolerably continuously presented 
to the Macedonian and to the world. 

The reason why the inhabitants have been unable 
to utilize the natural advantages of the plains lies 
partly, as we have seen, in the fact that the whole 
region lies open to invasion, alike from north and 
from south. Further, though each basin has 
within it the elements of prosperity, the relative 
difficulty of communication makes combination 
difficult, renders the making of anything but a 
local stand all but an impossibilit}^. In con- 
nection with this relative difficulty of communica- 
tion we should note, even at this stage, the fre- 
quency of that peculiar bend on the course of the 
rivers to which we drew attention in the case of 
Bulgaria. Note, for example, how the River 
Tserna, which passes through the fertile Pelagonian 
basin, in which lies Monastir, instead of taking the 
" natural " route to the south-east, turns upon 
itself at a sharp angle to flow north-east to the 
Vardar (see Fig. n). Note, again, the bend on 
the Vistritza, which enters the south-west angle of 
the plain of Salonika, after a very curious course, 
and the headwaters of the Vardar itself. Examples, 
indeed, are frequent. 

Generally we may say of Macedonia that its 
basins give opportunities to invading hosts to send 
off lateral swarms, without making it easy either 
for the invaders or the original inhabitants to 
form strong political groups. The region has been 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 57 

one of ceaseless flux, as the human tide sweeps 
in and out from the surrounding better defended 
areas. One result has been to make the ethnology 
of Macedonia an almost insoluble problem. 

We have already spoken in a general fashion of 
the parts of Bulgaria and Serbia which bound 
Macedonia on the east, and in the last chapter dis- 
cussed the lands lying to the north of it. We must 
turn next to the very important question of its 
western boundary, constituted by Albania and 
Epirus . 

Let us turn once again to Fig. 2. Through 
Austrian territories the mountain-folds, as we have 
already seen, run generally in a north-west to 
south-east direction, parallel to the coast, which 
is itself mostly mountain-bordered. In the region 
of the Drin Gulf, or, as it is sometimes called, the 
Bay of San Giovanni di Medua, there is a peculiar 
notch in the coast-line which marks a sudden 
change of direction, alike of mountain-folds and 
of coast-line. Immediately to the north of this 
notch the Dinaric folds in large part, but not 
entirely, swing round suddenly to the north-east, 
to form the North Albanian Alps (or Prokletia 
Mountains). These mountains form a rampart 
just beyond the south-eastern frontier of Monte- 
negro, and their continuation is that incomplete 
barrier to the south-east of the sandjak of Novi- 
bazar of which we have already spoken (p. 30). 

South of the Drin Gulf the Albanian folds 



5 8 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

(Fig. 2) for a time have an almost north-to-south 
direction, and the coast from San Giovanni di 
Medua to the vicinity of Valona has the same 
direction. But these Albanian folds at their 
northern end also swing round to the north-east, 
in a direction almost parallel to the North Albanian 
Alps. These folds form the Shar Mountains (Shar 
Planina), which face the North Albanian Alps, 
across a troubled area of upland and depression, 
some forty-five miles wide from crest to crest. 
In both mountain-ranges the summit levels rise 
above 8,000 feet. If this were all, it is obvious 
that we should have here a natural gateway, 
leading into the great highway from Belgrade 
to Salonika, and thus forming a natural outlet 
from Serbia to the Adriatic. But, while most of 
the folds show this swing to the north-east, some — 
which Professor Cvijic calls the " resistant folds " — 
continue in the original direction — i.e., remain 
parallel to the coast-line, though the mountains 
so formed are considerably lower than either the 
North Albanian Alps or the Shar Planina. The 
very diagrammatic sketch-map which forms Fig. 4 
suggests the position of the hill and mountain ranges. 
At the extreme eastern side of this map we see 
a part of the railway from Belgrade to Salonika, 
the Nish to Uskub section being shown. Stretch- 
ing from the Serbian boundary eastwards to the 
small part of the Adriatic coast which is included, 
we have the encumbered lateral couloir which lies 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 



59 



between the North Albanian Alps and the Shar 
Mountains. In this couloir are three depressed 
areas, separated by ridges. Beginning at the sea- 
ward end, we have the depression in which the 
Lake of Scutari lies. Behind it is an upland region, 
which bounds to the south-west the Metoya depres- 



i^F 



SANDJAK 
NOVI B 




MO NT E NEGRO'""*) 



Fig. 4. — Sketch-map of the Albanian Gap, showing the Three 
Successive Depressions — the Scutari, the Metoya, and 
the Kosovo — with their Intervening Watersheds, which 
here lie between the old frontier of serbia and the 
Sea. 

sion, with the town of Diakova. Another upland, 
crossed by several roads, separates this, again, 
from the important Kosovo basin, with the towns 
of Mitrovitza and Prishtina. 

The range behind Scutari is of pure limestone, 
and shows karst phenomena in their most pro- 



60 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

nounced form. Through this karst country the 
Drin runs in a deep ravine, which the road — or, 
rather, track — avoids just as the road of earlier 
days avoided the similar gorge of the Narenta 
(p. 48). But roads in this region, even when 
marked upon the map, are apt to represent an 
ideal rather than a reality. 

Now, the question for Serbia — a supremely im- 
portant question — becomes, Is this lateral outlet 
to the Adriatic commercially practicable ? That 
Serbia, alike in the person of her chief geographer 
and in her official policy, has answered the question 
in the affirmative, there can be no shadow of a 
doubt. The relative lowness of the mountains, 
their narrowness, and the fact that a railway line 
here would traverse successive belts of great 
potential productiveness, are points which seem to 
favour the commercial development of this region. 
The track of the Turkish days, we may note, rises 
between Scutari and the Metoya basin to a height of 
about 3,200 feet. On the other hand, Dr. Norbert 
Krebs, a distinguished Austrian geographer, answers 
the question in the negative, pointing to the fact 
that three watersheds (the third is on the old 
Serbian frontier — i.e., north-east of Kosovo polye) 
intervene by this route between Nish and the sea, 
while there is only one on the Nish-Salonika route. 
But then he states frankly that, on strategic 
grounds, Austria cannot tolerate Serbia on the 
Adriatic, and one suspects that his nationality may 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 6l 

unconsciously sway his scientific judgment. It is 
at least clear that Serbia had this line of advance 
to the Adriatic in view when she began the first 
Balkan War, and obtained only a partial satis- 
faction of her ambitions in the somewhat vague 
permission to construct a line to the seaboard of 
independent Albania. 

We must, however, point out that there are 
certain other geographical features to be con- 
sidered in connection with this part of the Adriatic 
coast-line, in addition to the mere problem of the 
cost of railway construction and working. Serbia 
wants a seaboard, not merely a port in an alien 
land. What are the features of the seaboard here ? 

The first point is that, in contrast to the Dal- 
matian coast, where there has been recent depres- 
sion, there seems here to have been recent elevation. 
The limestone hills stand at some distance from the 
shore, and between them and the sea is a stretch 
of flat, swampy, malarious land, on which the 
rivers, notably the Drin, lay down great loads of 
silt. The contrast, indeed, between the steep 
Dalmatian coast and the flat, swampy Albanian 
coast offers certain resemblances to the contrast 
between the flat Venetian coast and the steep 
slopes of the Abruzzi, on the other side of the 
Adriatic Sea. Just as off the Venetian coast, so 
here there is a tendency for lidi, or ridges, to form, 
behind which are sheltered lagoons, and the risk 
of malaria ; the changeableness of the coast-line is 



62 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

as obvious here as on that other shore, though of 
course the hinterland is entirely different. 

Largely because of their swampy and malarious 
coast-line, the Albanians are not a littoral people. 
Their home is the hills behind, not the immediate 
sea-margin. The point is of some interest, because 
it means that there is not here a race of people 
living the typical " Mediterranean " life, as there is 
in Dalmatia. Where men live on the shore in the 
Mediterranean region, they are generally fishers 
and small traders; on their hillsides they grow the 
typical Mediterranean crops, such as vine and 
olive and warm temperate fruit trees, notably the 
citrus-fruits. Such a people, though largely Slav 
of race, live on the coast of Dalmatia. Their mode 
of life is entirely different from that of the Slavs 
of the interior, who are fundamentally ploughing 
and pastoral peasants. Were Dalmatia by the for- 
tune of war to be added to Serbia, it seems possible 
that the existence of a group of people of such 
different social polity from those of the interior 
might be a cause of trouble in a young, expanding 
state. That particular difficulty does not arise — 
or only to a very limited extent — on the coast of 
Albania, where the lands bordering the sea are 
chiefly used for winter pasturage by the hill- 
dwelling Albanians. Their towns also tend to be, 
not littoral, but placed where the mountain-streams 
debouch upon the coastal plain. One should note 
also that the abundance of rivers, itself due to the 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 63 

relative insignificance of the limestone, is a marked 
contrast with the Dalmatian coast. The river 
valleys make communication with the interior 
easier than is the case in Dalmatia. Perhaps we 
should add that the malaria of the coastal belt 
here is not an insuperable obstacle to a progressive 
people. 

At the present time on this north-to-south 
stretch of Albanian coast no port of any significance 
exists. There are various possibilities, though in 
all cases extensive harbour works would probably 
have to be undertaken. Thus we have San Gio- 
vanni di Medua, now a mere hamlet, and Durazzo, 
the latter being the port which Serb policy has 
favoured in the immediate past. 

In regard to Durazzo an interesting point arises. 
As Fig. 3 shows, it was the starting-point of the old 
Roman road, the Via Egnatia, which ran past 
Struga to Monastir, and so to Salonika and Con- 
stantinople (see also Fig. 6, p. 91). From Monastir 
to the last-named town the old road is now func- 
tionally replaced by the railway; but the western 
section — that from the sea to Struga — has for the 
most part ceased to exist. Serbia's railway schemes, 
however, as put forward in her short breathing- 
space between the 191 3 war and that of 19 14, in- 
cluded an extension of the Salonika-Monastir route 
to Struga and Durazzo, with a connection from 
Struga to Uskub via Dibra (see Fig. 7). 

We have stated above that the port of Valona, 



64 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

occupied towards the end of 19 14 by an Italian 
force, marks the end of the north-to-south stretch 
of the coast. More strictly speaking, the limit is 
the southern end of the bay of the same name, 
which is sheltered by the long tongue, whose 
extremity is called equally Cape Glossa and Cape 
Linguetta. This tongue marks the re-acquisition by 
the earth-folds of the south-easterly direction . From 
this point onwards the hills once more approach the 
shore; once more the interior becomes difficult of 
access. In the Epirus region there is no harbour 
save that of Santi Quaranta, the coast is for the 
most part steep, and paths to the interior are few. 
But the mountains differ in several respects from 
those of Dalmatia. Flysch beds and soft rocks 
of more recent date appear in addition to lime- 
stones. Farther south also the surface is more 
broken up by faulting, the sea interpenetrates the 
land more thoroughly, and the resultant absence 
of a large expanse of unbroken limestone prevents 
the appearance of ordinary karst forms, so that we 
get the typical dissected coast of Greece. Still 
further south the folds swing round to the east in 
Crete, but there we leave them. 

One other question perhaps deserves a word or 
two before we close this chapter. On the struc- 
tural map which forms Fig. 2 there is shown an 
intermediate belt, between old land core and 
mountainous rim, which practically coincides with 
Macedonia. According to Professor Cvijic, this 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 65 

zone is truly intermediate in character, according 
to others it is the inner part of the mountain zone. 
We need not stop to consider this geological problem 
here, but it is worth repeating that in all this belt 
folding does not seem to occur. The forces which 
express themselves on the sea-margin in folds are 
indicated here in parallel lines of dislocation, which 
run parallel to the fold-lines — i.e., nearly north and 
south — and give rise to the elongated basins of 
Macedonia. These basins were geologically but a 
short time ago all flooded with lake-water, and, as 
we shall see, the present anomalies of drainage are 
to be explained by the way in which part of the 
water gradually drained away as the North ^gean 
area sank below the sea. 

NOTE. 

Among the papers dealing with Turkish possessions mention 
may be made of Cvijic's great monograph on Macedonia and 
Old Serbia already alluded to (p. 18), also Oestreich, " Reise- 
eindrucke a. d. Vilajet Kosovo " and " Beitrage z. Geomorpho- 
logie v. Makedonien " (Abhandl. d. K. K. Geogvaphischen 
Gesellschaft, i., 1899, an d i v -> I 9°2), also " Makedonien," by the 
same author {Geographische Zeitschrift, x., 1904). For the 
sandjak of Novibazar, see Gaston Gravier, " Le Sandzak de 
Novi Pazar " {Annates de Geographie, xxii., 1913). 



CHAPTER V 

RIVER SYSTEMS AND POLITICAL TENDENCIES: THE 
HYDROGRAPHIC ANOMALIES OF THE PENINSULA 

Normal river systems in Western Europe — Special peculiarities 
of the Balkan rivers — The Sub-Balkan river and its fate — 
River systems of North Macedonia — The low watersheds 
and their causes — Effect of river capture on racial am- 
bitions. 

In the preceding chapter we have emphasized two 
characteristics of the Balkan Peninsula — the anom- 
alous courses of many of its rivers, and the absence 
of geographical centres round which national units 
might crystallize. In this chapter we shall attempt 
to show that the two facts are correlated, and to 
indicate also the reason for the hydrographic 
peculiarities. 

Let us first, for the sake of contrast, consider 
for a moment a highly centralized state, taking 
France as our example. It is common knowledge 
that Paris is to a very marked degree the centre of 
France. Perhaps, however, only those who are 
acquainted with recent geographical work realize 
the extent to which the Seine has made Paris, and 
thus France. The capital is placed at a conver- 
gence of tributaries, tributaries which are them- 
selves in several cases notable rivers, draining the 

66 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 67 

greater part of Northern France. Easy routes 
connect Paris with Orleans, again a city standing 
on a river with many converging tributaries, 
draining lands of various products, so that Orleans 
is only little inferior to Paris as a natural centre. 
The Saone-Rhone valley, a region so full of im- 
portance in the history of French civilization, can 
be reached by not very difficult routes from the 
Paris basin. 

What is the relation of these facts to the develop- 
ment of France ? Consider the prime conditions 
necessary for the development of a national unit. 
Surely there must be a central region where life is 
relatively easy, so placed that the varied products 
of diverse surrounding regions drain naturally into 
it, and yet having as its ultimate margin an area 
where life is relatively difficult, so that men's 
thoughts, like the surplus of their crops or of their 
manufactures, tend to flow towards the centre 
rather than outwards to the periphery. What are 
the lines along which movement of man and pack- 
beast, of boat or raft, of motor-car or railway 
engine, takes place most easily ? Surely, at least 
in the most general case, the river valleys. France 
is France because of the way in which the tentacles 
of the Seine extend far north, east, and south, 
because of the proximity of its ultimate feeders 
to those of other great river systems. 

If the detailed analysis of such points is relatively 
modern and still somewhat unfamiliar, the fact that 



68 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

rivers in well-peopled countries generally consist 
of many converging tributaries is at least familiar, 
so familiar, indeed, that we are apt to regard it as an 
obvious " law of Nature." 

Some other features of the well-known rivers of 
Europe we tend similarly to regard as general 
characteristics of large waterways. Thus many of 
these have rather low banks, gorges being an in- 
frequent phenomenon. They rarely show elbow 
turns on their courses. The slopes of their beds 
are moderate, so that highroad, and often railway, 
tend to run alongside the water. It is of impor- 
tance to stress such commonplaces, for the rivers 
of the Balkan Peninsula diverge in almost every 
respect from what we tacitly regard as the ordinary 
" laws " governing the hydrographic net of a 
country. Further, since physical geographers have 
begun to devote special attention to the courses of 
the familiar and " normal " types of rivers, they 
have been able to show that such " normality" is 
only present when the surface over which the river 
has been flowing has remained unmodified by 
tectonic forces for a prolonged period of geological 
time. The Balkan Peninsula shares — and shares 
to a very marked degree — the peculiarity of Medit- 
erranean lands in general, of having been in a 
geologically recent epoch the seat of very consider- 
able earth movements. As a result its river 
system — in part old — has been profoundly modified ; 
new rivers have become joined up to old ones> 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 69 

powerful streams have poached upon their neigh- 
bours' preserves, and the struggle of competing 
races has been paralleled — at an earlier date — by 
the conflicts of the streams. The racial confusion 
in Macedonia is balanced, as it has been in part 
created, by the confusion of its streams. A de- 
tailed stud}^ of these streams would lead us too 
far, but a description of one or two of them will 
help to make clear the difficulties connected with 
lines of communication. 

The first point to notice is that, in harmony 
with its history as the oldest part of the region, the 
Rhodope mass is the hydrographic centre of the 
peninsula. Owing, however, to the formation of 
young folded mountains on its margins, its rivers 
have failed to keep the radiating course from this 
centre out to the sea which we should have ex- 
pected of them. 

What are the masses of water into which all the 
streams of the peninsula ultimately find their 
way, and which thus act as base-level ? To the 
north the rivers enter the Save or the Danube, and 
thus the Black Sea. Except for this great artery, 
however, the Black Sea does not receive the larger 
rivers of the peninsula. A few enter the Adriatic, 
but large stretches of that sea's coast are almost 
streamless. Many rivers, and among them the 
more important, enter the iEgean, notably the 
Maritza, Mesta, Struma, Vardar, and Vistritza, 
of which the Maritza especially is a powerful river 



7 o GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

with many tributaries. Our first point, then, is 
that the iEgean attracts streams, some of which 
originate outside of its drainage area; it attracts 
streams as it has always attracted peoples. 

Let us consider next the origin of the three seas, 
which will give us a physiographical reason for this 
attracting power of the ^Egean. The Black Sea is 
in essence old, and through later geological time 
has been diminishing, not increasing, in area. Not 
very long ago, as geologists count time, it extended, 
as we have seen, over the present plain of Hungary. 
There was a later period when the Pannonian Sea 
was linked with the water which spread over the 
Roumanian basin through the existing Iron Gates 
of the Danube, and the present Danube developed 
as that old sea retreated. At the same time the 
central valley of Bulgaria — that is, the East 
Roumelian basin — was also covered with water. In 
this region, then, the base-level has been retreating 
in recent geological time, and there has been 
further an elevation of the western margin of the 
Black Sea, which has helped to cut off, e.g., the 
Tundja from it. This retreat of the base-level 
means that the cutting power of the rivers is 
diminished, the result being, as we shall see, that 
their headwaters are very apt to be tapped by other 
streams whose power of erosion is greater. 

The date of the Adriatic's origin is not certain, 
but it seems clear at least that in Late Pliocene 
time — i.e., in the period immediately before the 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 71 

Glacial epoch — the North Adriatic basin was 
widened and deepened. When this happened, as 
we have already seen, the coastal stretch of Dal- 
matia sank also, so that the marginal valleys and 
the lower ends of the rivers were submerged . While 
however, the coastal belt sank, there seems to have 
been elevation of the inner mountain belt, an 
elevation accompanied by faulting, which helped 
to form the polyen. 

Now, when the lower part of a river valley is sub- 
merged, the average steepness of its course is 
increased, and thus its erosive power is rendered 
more marked. In the upper courses of the Adriatic 
rivers this increased erosive power was accentuated 
by the elevation of the middle mountain belt. The 
result of this increased cutting power is seen in the 
gorge of the Narenta (p. 48), and its effect has 
been to diminish the accessibility of the inner zone. 
It must be remembered in this connection that a 
limestone district, whatever its rainfall, tends to 
show the characters of an arid region — i.e., its 
tributariless rivers may cut down into the rock of 
their beds, but general weathering of the surface 
of the land proceeds only with great slowness. 

The differential movements had, however, further 
effects in this region. In limestone areas the sur- 
face water soaks through crevices and cavities in 
the rock, and penetrates a certain distance down- 
ward. The level beyond which it does not sink is 
the ground-water level. When elevation of the 



72 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

surface took place, the ground-level necessarily sank, 
and thus rivers which under old conditions had 
just succeeded in maintaining themselves at the 
surface tended to disappear. In the karst country 
there are many cases of river valleys in which 
rivers either no longer flow at all, or only at certain 
seasons. The disappearance of some at least of 
the rivers which formerly occupied these valleys 
is ascribed to the movements which we have 
described. 

In general, then, the changes in the North 
Adriatic which took place towards the close of the 
Pliocene, with the associated changes in the 
adjacent land surface, led to certain rivers dis- 
appearing altogether into the limestone, and gave 
to others such increased erosive power that they 
tended to sink down into steep limestone gorges. 
Thus the total effect was to produce an increased 
inaccessibility of the middle mountain zone. The 
movement affected equally the rivers of the flysch 
zone (p. 40), with the result that the Verbas, 
Bosna, Drina, etc., are interrupted by gorges and 
waterfalls in their upper reaches, and, despite the 
appearance of the map, do not permit of easy 
access from the Save to the interior of Bosnia 
(cf. p. 49). 

The effect of recent geological changes in the 
east and west of the peninsula has thus been, first, 
to diminish the importance of the Euxine rivers, 
largely owing to the drawing off of their head- 






BALKAN PROBLEMS 73 

waters by the more powerful JEgean streams; 
second, to diminish also the importance of the 
Adriatic streams, either actually because they sank 
into the limestone, or practically because of the 
formation of deep limestone canyons . 

Now let us turn to the ^Egean in detail. Here a 
great stretch of land which once united the Rhodope 
mass to Asia Minor has sunk below the sea, carrying 
with it the lower parts of the courses — or perhaps 
a great central trunk — of the rivers which were 
draining much of the peninsula. All these rivers 
had their erosive powers greatly increased in conse- 
quence of this steepening of their beds, for, be it 
remembered, it was the lower, more or less level, 
part of their course which was cut off. The conse- 
quence was that the rivers, or perhaps the dis- 
membered tributaries of a mighty stream, owing 
to their increased cutting power, ate back their 
watersheds, captured the headwaters of streams 
rising on the other side, and thus tended to deflect 
much of the surface water of the peninsula to the 
^Egean. Let us illustrate this general statement 
by a special study of some of the river systems. 

We have already spoken of the Inter-Balkan 
valley, a trough lying between the Balkans and the 
Anti-Balkans, which seems to have originated 
through earth movements (Fig. 5). At one period it 
is clear that this trough was traversed from end to 
end by a mighty river, which ran from west to east, 
and entered the sea, probably by three mouths, 



74 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

iii the vicinity of the present port of Burgas, 
forming, as it were, a pale reflection of the Danube 
to the north. Some thirty odd miles to the south 
of this river there flowed another, also with a west 
to east course, the river represented to-day tty the 
Upper Maritza. This early Maritza river was fed 
by tributaries flowing from the south side of the 
Anti-Balkans, and by others from the slopes of the 
Rhodope upland. In all probability, after passing 
the site of the present town of Adrianople, it took 
a south-easterly direction, and entered the Sea of 
Marmora not far from the present town of Con- 
stantinople. But when the ^Egean sank, the river 
which now forms the Lower Maritza pushed back, 
tapped the present Middle Maritza, and drew the 
whole stream off in the direction of the JEgean. 
When this occurred the cutting power of the 
Maritza and of all its tributaries was greatly 
increased, and the tributaries proceeded to repeat 
the act of piracy on an ever-increasing scale. 
Thus one tributary, pushing its way backwards, 
cut through the watershed of the Anti-Balkans, 
and drew off the headwaters of the Inter- Balkan 
River. The headwaters so tapped now flow into 
the Maritza as the River Striema (Fig. 5). The 
same process was repeated successively, the Tundja 
being the greatest capture of the triumphant 
Maritza. The net result was to decompose an 
originally continuous river valley into a series of 
basins, separated from one another by ridges of no 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 



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76 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

great height. Some of these basins are shown in 

Fig. 5- 
The ridges which separate the fertile basins are 

here, as we have said, not high, so that they do 
not offer any great obstacle to communication, 
but, and this is a very important point, the fact 
of their existence diminishes the importance of 
Burgas, and helps to turn Bulgaria's attention 
southwards to the iEgean. Had the Inter-Balkan 
river persisted into human time, we can hardly 
doubt that the products of its valley would have 
tended to drain towards the Black Sea port of 
Burgas, as naturally as the products of the Bul- 
garian part of the Danube Valley drain to the 
Bulgarian port of Varna, and those of the Rou" 
manian part of the same valley to the port of 
Constanza. Thus the peculiarities of the courses of 
the Bulgarian rivers, themselves due to river 
capture conditioned by the sinking of the land 
which once covered the ^Egean, has had an effect, 
and a very important effect, upon the political and 
commercial history of Bulgaria. 

If the essential point of the meaning of river 
capture be grasped, the conditions in Bulgaria may 
be said to be relatively simple. In Macedonia, on 
the other hand, they are extraordinarily compli- 
cated. To attempt to give a full account of the 
singularities of the Macedonian drainage system 
would demand far more space than is available 
here, and the subject cannot at best be made very 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 77 

simple. On the other hand, the troubles in Mace- 
donia have been so often ascribed to sheer wicked- 
ness on the part of the Turk, or of some other 
scapegoat, that it seems worth while to discuss in 
a little detail the physiographic facts which have 
made it possible for the political confusion here 
to endure so long. Such confusion, we may be 
sure, could not have reigned in countries like France 
or England, opened up by extensive, copiously 
branched river systems. 

Macedonia, as we have seen, is characterized by 
the number of usually small and general isolated 
basins, floored with fertile soil, which are either 
disconnected with one another, or are linked by 
rivers which deviate in almost every respect from 
the orderly streams to which we are accustomed. 
The reason is, fundamentally, that while in origin 
these basins are due to faulting and earth move- 
ments, the rivers flow in valleys which are often 
composed of segments of very different age. The 
complications of the drainage are thus related 
to the fact that, in marked contrast to the con- 
ditions in the Paris basin, the ordinary forces of 
erosion have only succeeded to a very partial 
extent in smoothing out the irregularities due to 
earth movements, and further to the fact that these 
earth movements themselves took place at different 
ages. We may compare the drainage conditions 
to the legal constitution of a country which has 
not once, but many times, undergone revolution, 



78 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

so that the steady evolution of law and custom has 
been interrupted by catastrophic events, whose 
effects are visible in unexpected anomalies of 
jurisdiction and in constant breaches of tradition. 

If the Turk, by a strange anachronism, succeeded 
till yesterday in keeping his hold upon the fertile 
lands of Macedonia, if at the moment its conditions 
under the Christian seems scarcely better than under 
his predecessor, we have to remember that the 
troubled and confused drainage gives a geographical 
cause, if not a justification, of the anomaly. 

In the following description we shall try to give 
a brief history of the development of some of the 
streams and valleys, though this has the disadvan- 
tage that it does not make perfectly clear the con- 
trast between facts of observation, and deductions 
based upon such facts. But as our object here is 
merely to emphasize the connection between the 
drainage anomalies and the difficulty of finding 
suitable commercial lines of communication to 
drain the separate fertile areas, this disadvantage 
is perhaps of minor importance. Those whose 
interest in the subject is primarily physiographical 
will do well to consult the special papers mentioned 
at the end of this and the preceding chapters. 

A glance at the general map of the peninsula will 
show that the Morava, the chief river of Serbia, is 
made up of two main streams, called respectively 
the Western and the Southern Morava. The 
tributaries of these two drain a considerable part of 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 79 

North Macedonia (Old Serbia). The map shows 
further that the Morava, continued by the Southern 
Morava, lies in a valley which has a general south- 
easterly direction from Semendria on the Danube 
to the ravine of Gredelyitza (Grdeljica), south of 
Leskovatz. Another valley, having the same 
general direction, but not traversed b} r one con- 
tinuous stream, extends from the Western Morava, 
near the town of Kralyevo, through the plain of 
Kosovo, past the town of Uskub, and then by the 
Vardar valley to the vicinity of Salonika. These 
two troughs correspond in their general direction 
to that of the folds of the Dinaric Alps, and we may 
reasonably regard them as indicating original 
structural lines in the peninsula. Parts of both 
valleys are shown in Fig. 4, and it is worth while 
to look at the second in a little detail. 

We note on this sketch - map that its most 
northern part is occupied by the River Ibar, a 
tributary of the Western Morava. That river has, 
for most of its course, a general north-western 
direction, but, as shown, its upper portion flows 
nearly east, and takes a sudden elbow turn at the 
town of Mitrovitza, which brings it into the tectonic 
valley of which we have spoken. South of Mitro- 
vitza that valley is occupied by a tributary of the 
Ibar, not named on the map on account of the 
small scale, whose name is the Sitnitza. The Sit- 
nitza, which for a time occupies the centre of the 
Kosovo polye, again enters it at an angle, but 



So GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

one of its tributaries continues the valley line, 
and this tributary, at least in wet weather, is con- 
nected with a tributary of the Lepenatz, itself an 
affluent of the Vardar. The result is that in the 
southern part of the Kosovo plain we have a wholly 
undetermined watershed between an ultimate tribu- 
tary of the Morava and an ultimate tributary of 
the Vardar. Now, the Vardar, be it remembered, 
flows to the JEgean, the Morava to the Danube, 
and so to the Black Sea. Thus in the very heart 
of the peninsula we have a swamp where there 
should be a great water-parting, a region of un- 
certain drainage in what ought to have been a 
definite line. Can we wonder that this plain of 
Kosovo has been, time and again, the scene of 
bloody slaughter ? Here, in 1 389, the Turks routed 
the Serbs and made their long dominance sure; 
here, in 1448, the Hungarians defeated the Turks, 
and made the end of that long dominance a proba- 
bility of the future, set also a limit to Turkish 
sway. 

The plain itself, be it noted, belongs completely 
neither to the Danube drainage system nor to the 
iEgean one. Politically it belonged till 191 3 to 
the iEgean area (Macedonia). At present the 
Serbs, into whose possession it has fallen, can only 
develop it by a very circuitous route through 
Uskub. But they desire to link it directly to Nish 
by a railway (see Fig. 7) which would take advantage 
either of the Prepolatz Pass (over 3,000 feet), which 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 81 

connects the Lab valley (see Fig. 4) with the Top- 
litza valley, a route now crossed by a road, or 
of the adjacent Merdare Pass. This is a curious 
instance of a proposed line of communication cutting 
a main valley at an angle. The conditions here, 
we may repeat, are not peculiar to the Kosovo 
polye. More or less throughout Macedonia we find 
that the constant occurrence of sharp angles on the 
course of the rivers makes their valleys circuitous 
as routes, and the associated presence of low water- 
sheds makes direct communication by transverse 
roads between valleys both possible and desirable. 

In the Kosovo polye the height of the indefinite 
watershed which occurs within the basin is only 
1,900 feet, and it offers no obstacle to railway 
construction. It has indeed been crossed for a 
number of years by the railway which runs to 
Mitrovitza, but not beyond. 

The same sketch-map (Fig. 4) shows the upper 
part of the second tectonic valley, that occupied 
by the Morava and Southern Morava, and it will 
be noted that here also there is a low watershed 
(marked by a cross on the map) between one of the 
tributaries of the Southern Morava and a feeder of 
a tributary of the Vardar. The watershed here is 
lower than in the preceding case, about 1 ,500 feet 
above sea-level, and thus offers no obstacle to the 
through railway from Belgrade to Salonika. The 
difficulties were indeed greater farther north, in 
the region of the Gredelyitza ravine. 

6 



82 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Now if, as we have said, these valleys are old, 
are due to earth movements possibly associated 
with the folding of the western mountains, then 
it is obvious that there must have been recent 
changes in the drainage. Such a condition as that 
of a wet weather connection between the head- 
waters of one great stream and another, or a very 
low watershed, always means that changes have oc- 
curred in the immediate past. It is necessarily an 
unstable state of affairs ; sooner or later one stream 
must gain the master}^ over the other, and a read- 
justment takes place. If from one point of view the 
conditions in the Kosovo polye seem more remark- 
able than those where the ultimate feeders of 
Southern Morava and Vardar so nearly touch, 
we have to remember in both cases that the sur- 
rounding regions have a considerable mean eleva- 
tion, and that it is extraordinary, in both cases, to 
find what are virtually valley watersheds in a 
mountain region. What explanation of the anoma- 
lies can we offer ? 

Let us note first the meaning of sharp elbow 
turns on the course of a river. In the ordinary 
case such turns mean that one river, because of 
its greater erosive power, or because of the ease 
with which its bed can be eroded, has been able 
to encroach upon the territory of another less 
powerful stream, and draw off its headwaters. As 
we have all recently been poring over maps of 
North France, it may be interesting to point out 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 83 

that a typical example of this condition is seen in 
the sharp turn on the course of the Moselle at Toul, 
which is due to the fact that the Moselle has been 
able to encroach upon the drainage area of the 
Meuse, and to draw off water which once flowed 
into that river. But such elbow turns may also 
be due either directly to earth movements upsetting- 
drainage, or to captures induced by such earth 
movements. In the case of the Moselle and the 
Meuse, the former river has stolen water from the 
latter because its task of cutting back was, owing 
to the nature of the rocks, much easier. Thus the 
capture here is part of an ordinary process of 
erosion. On the other hand, the sharp turns in the 
case of the Macedonian rivers are due, not to the 
ordinary processes of erosion alone, but to a 
combination of these and the effects of earth 
movements. 

Let us elaborate this latter point. The two 
valleys marked respectively by the Morava and 
Southern Morava on the one hand, and on the 
other by the Ibar, tributaries of the Ibar, a tribu- 
tary of the Lepenatz, the Lepenatz itself, and the 
Vardar, are very old valleys, marking tectonic — 
that is, structural — lines in the peninsula. We 
need not assume that the second valley was ever 
traversed by a continuous stream, but there are 
great difficulties in the way of an attempt to deter- 
mine the early river system of the region. What 
does seem clear is that, whatever the direction of 



84 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

the original streams, segments of the tectonic 
valleys sank down as basins, or what the Germans 
call Senkungsj elder — that is, plains of sinking. 
The faulting which produced these movements was 
apparently associated with the beginnings of the 
formation of the JEgean. Its result was to reverse 
the drainage in certain parts of the river valleys, 
just as we could reverse the drainage in a part of a 
gutter by inserting a drain in the middle of its 
course. But the Senkungsj elder were only hollows, 
not drains, and therefore, necessarily, as the 
drainage reversed they became flooded with water, 
were turned into lakes. Such lakes formed over 
a large part of what is now Macedonia, and at the 
same time also over a large part of the old continent 
which was to sink to form the iEgean Sea. For 
we have to remember that the formation of that 
sea was not a sudden process. It was preceded 
by faulting, by differential movements, by a con- 
sequent formation of a vast system of lakes. At 
one period these lakes seem to have been con- 
fluent, and, according to Professor Cvijic, the great 
lake so produced not only spread over the area 
now covered by the JEgean Sea, but stretched far 
and wide over the present peninsula, and, pene- 
trating through what is now the Gredelyitza 
ravine, joined up with the great Pannonian Sea, 
which covered the Hungarian plain, and thus 
turned the Rhodope upland into an island. 

The next change was that the iEgean area sank 



BALKAN PROBLEMS S5 

still deeper, and, from being a branching lake, 
became a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The 
result was to decompose that part of the old lake 
within the present peninsula into a series on 
separate basins, connected by rivers. These rivers, 
many of which rushed southwards to the develop- 
ing iEgean, proved powerful enough to drain ulti- 
mately most of the lake basins, and left them as 
fertile plains covered by soft lake deposits. Other 
rivers flowed northwards to the Danube, and suc- 
ceeded similarly in draining the lake basins on their 
courses. Only in those cases where the directiof 
of drainage was towards the Adriatic, and the 
streams seem to have had less erosive power, were 
the lake basins able to persist. This accounts for 
the presence in Macedonia to-day of a group of 
lakes (Okhrida, Presba, etc.) whose outlet is towards 
the Adriatic, while elsewhere, as round Uskub, 
Monastir, and so forth, we have, instead of lake 
basins, plains whose surface is still sometimes 
swampy. Towards the borders of the iEgean, 
also, some of the original lake basins still persist. 

Now, when the rivers formed which drained the 
inner basins of Macedonia, they were sometimes 
able to reoccupy their own earlier valleys, while 
sometimes they had to make new ones. Further, 
during the period when the separate lakes existed, 
each acted as base-level for the streams of its own 
immediate vicinity, and numerous captures and 
beheadings took place between the streams of ad- 



86 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

jacent basins. For example, it seems fairly clear 
that the river which is now the Lower Ibar has 
drained off water which once flowed to the Vardar. 
Similarly, the Southern Morava, whose temporary 
base-level in the basin of Nish was lower than that 
of the Vardar in the basin of Uskub, has also carried 
off water which must once have flowed south to the 
iEgean . 

Another point, which is suggested by the map, is 
that the Drin has apparently captured for the 
Adriatic water which once ran south towards the 
^Egean . 

If we sum up the points which we have tried to 
bring out, we may say generally that in Bulgaria 
the tendency through recent geological time has 
been for the ^Egean to predominate more and 
more as the basin which attracts most of the water 
which falls on the surface of the land. But in Mace- 
donia, though to the south the same tendency is 
very marked, yet to the north, in association with 
the earth movements which helped to form the 
North Albanian gap, the conditions have been a 
little different. Earth movements here, apparently 
of recent date, have left great uncertainty in the 
watersheds, and, further, some water which once 
flowed towards the ^Egean has been drawn off 
towards the Danube, and some which once similarly 
ran south, has, it would seem, been deflected to the 
Adriatic. The uncertainty of the watersheds has 
attracted Serbia southwards, has prevented her 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 87 

from being permanently what she might have 
been, a state holding only lands which drained 
towards the Danube. Further, the captures affected 
by the Drin have helped to open a road towards 
the Adriatic, have helped, therefore, to turn Serbia's 
attention to that sea. 

We have only considered the drainage of a very 
small part of Macedonia, but a very slight study 
of the map will show that everywhere the rivers 
show similar peculiarities. The result of these 
drainage anomalies is that the political question — 
Does Macedonia belong to the natural zone of 
expansion of Serbia, of Bulgaria, or of Greece ? — is 
complicated by the geographical uncertainty of 
the drainage. The fact that there are uncom- 
pleted geographical adjustments in the region helps 
to account for the other fact that there are also 
uncompleted political ones. 

NOTE. 

Two papers by Professor Cvijic are of special importance in 
connection with the subject of this chapter, " Das Pliozane 
Flusstal im Siiden des Balkans " (Abhandlungen d. K. K. 
Geographischen Gesellschaft in Wien, vii., 1908), and " L'Ancien 
Lac Egeen " {Annates de Geographie, xx., 191 1), but the rivers 
of the peninsula are discussed incidentally in most of the 
papers named at the end of the preceding chapters. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE MAIN TRADE ROUTES: THEIR PAST HISTORY 
AND PROBABLE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT 

The great Roman roads — Their direction and its significance — 
The Post-Roman decay of trade — Medieval routes and 
their relation to Roman lines — The trade of the State of 
Ragusa — Effect of the decay of the Turkish Empire — The 
struggles of the Slav Powers for free outlets — Serbia's 
access to the Adriatic. 

We have in the previous chapters considered in- 
cidentally the question of lines of communication 
within the peninsula, chiefly in their connection 
with its geographical peculiarities, and have noted 
that political questions have not been without in- 
fluence on the direction of the present lines. In this 
chapter, where the subject must be treated in more 
detail, it seems desirable to look at it from a his- 
torical standpoint. 

Before doing this it may be well to re-emphasize 
the fact that, almost up to the present time, both 
the roads and the later railways have had as their 
main purpose the crossing of the peninsula, not its 
development from within. Its northern rhom- 
boidal part has not, until within very recent times, 
shown much capacity for development from within 
outwards; its historical significance has been for 

88 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 89 

the most part that, since at least Roman times, it 
has lain athwart main world routes — routes whose 
direction has changed with changing times. Thus 
the surrounding Powers have driven across it — 
with the haughty rigidity of the Roman road- 
maker, or the more flexible skill of the modern 
engineer — ways which have enabled them to bring 
goods from afar, to transport their troops and 
munitions of war, to send their products to new 
and distant markets. As a general rule the products 
of the interior of the peninsula itself have seemed 
of as little importance to these surrounding Powers 
as have the desires or hopes of its inhabitants. 
Austria's determination to do all that in her lies 
to shut Serbia from the Adriatic, looked at philo- 
sophically, is but one expression of an age-long 
tradition, of the Roman contempt for a savage, 
forested, and mountainous tract, whose only sig- 
nificance was that it stood between the mistress 
of the world and regions more worthy of her atten- 
tion. Let us endeavour to prove and illustrate 
these statements by a glance at the history of the 
lines of communication. 

For the Greeks in the time of their splendour, 
the " continental " part of the peninsula, apart 
from its coasts, had but little significance. The 
interior was not easy of access; it was inhabited 
by various peoples, none of whom reached a high 
standard of civilization, and it had but little to 
offer. Greek influence tended to extend round the 



90 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

coasts, and inwards from the coasts towards the 
more accessible basins and river valleys, but left 
the bulk of the interior untouched. In the fourth 
century b.c. Philip of Macedon extended his 
kingdom up the east coast to the Danube and 
built cities and constructed roads; but after the 
death of his son, Alexander the Great, the economic 
development of the region was more or less in 
abeyance till Macedonia became a Roman province 
in 1 68 b.c. One of the first acts of the conquerors 
was the construction of the famous Via Egnatia, 
of which we have already said something (p. 63). 

Its course is shown generally on Fig. 6, and its 
purpose was to put old Rome in connection with 
what was to be in the distant future new Rome — 
that is, Byzantium. In other words, the Via 
Egnatia was the expression of Rome's Drang nach 
Osten, as the Belgrade-Constantinople railway, with 
its extension in the Bagdad line, may be regarded 
as the modern German expression of the same 
impelling motive, and the uncompleted Sarajevo - 
Mitrovitza-Salonika route, or the Belgrade-Nish- 
Salonika one, may be looked upon as visible 
indications of Austria's ambitions. 

The route of which the Via Egnatia formed a 
part led from Rome to Brindisi, then by the short 
sea-crossing to Durazzo.* From Durazzo the road 

* For our purpose here it seems unnecessary to give the 
ancient names of the towns mentioned. These may be found 
in a classical atlas. 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 



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92 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

entered the Shkumbi valley, whence it was easy 
to reach Struga at the head of Lake Okhrida. Hence 
two low saddles took it to Monastir, and from 
Monastir by Ostrovo to Salonika. From this point 
it ran mostly inland, beyond the coastal hills and 
coastal swamps, till brought close to the shore at 
Philippi (p. 54) and again in the vicinity of the 
present Dedeagatch. Hence it again ran inland 
till the shore of the Sea of Marmora was reached, 
where for a long time the Roman town of Perinthus, 
the present poor Turkish village of Eregli, was as 
important as Byzantium. The Via Egnatia was 
also continued on the Asiatic side into Armenia and 
Persia. Its primary object, we may repeat, was 
not to develop southern Macedonia; it was to put 
Rome in communication with the East. Its direc- 
tion, virtually west to east, is of interest in this 
connection. 

At a later date a branch road from the Via 
Egnatia was constructed, which put Rome in com- 
munication with her Lower Danube provinces. 
This road, apparently, started from Monastir, 
reached the Vardar, ascended its tributarjr, the 
Bregalnitza, and then attained Sofia by the Upper 
Struma. From Sofia it extended to the Danube 
by the Isker valley, and between the Isker and the 
Vid River there was apparently a great bridge over 
the Danube; there is now no bridge between Bel- 
grade and Chernavoda (see p. 221). 

A third road, which also put Rome in communica- 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 93 

tion with the Danube provinces, is of great in- 
terest in connection with Serbia's schemes for a 
connection with the Adriatic, for it follows very 
closely the line of one of the Danube-Adriatic 
railway schemes. 

This road started from the present Alessio at 
the mouth of the Drin, followed the Drin for a cer- 
tain distance, left it to cross the plateau where the 
river takes a northward bend and runs through a 
canyon, reached Prizren, entered the Kosovo basin, 
crossed the Prepolatz saddle to attain the Toplitza 
valley, reached Nish, and then crossed to the Timok 
valley, which was followed to the Danube. It is of 
much interest to note that there were thus in 
Roman times two important roads between the 
Adriatic and the interior, neither of which is at 
the present time represented by a railway — neither, 
indeed, by a continuous carriage road. 

A fourth important road, which had three 
branches, was that which put the mouth of the 
Narenta valley in communication with a town 
in the vicinity of the present Sarajevo, and from 
there branched out in various directions. The 
first part of this road followed a closely similar 
course to that of the present narrow-gauge rail- 
way from Metkovich to Sarajevo (p. 47); but 
while the modern railway only puts the coast in 
communication with the Save valley, the ancient 
road connected directly — ( 1 ) With the Save ; (2) with 
Macedonia and so with Salonika; (3) with Belgrade, 



94 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

and so with Nish, Sofia, Constantinople, and the 
East generally. As in the case of the roads 
already mentioned, this one is now in places repre- 
sented only by the roughest of mule-tracks. The 
sketch-map indicates the diverging branches which 
started from Sarajevo. One went to Mitrovitz, 
on the Save, by a route not yet clearly traced. 
Another took an almost easterly direction, passed 
the present townships of Rogatitza, Vishegrad, 
Vardishte, crossed the present frontier of Bosnia, 
and made for the Western Morava, passing Ujitze, 
Tchatchak, Krushevatz, and so reached the eastern 
road system. The third branch passed through 
the present sandjak of Novibazar, by a route which 
now carries little, if any, through traffic, and so 
reached the Kosovo basin, whence it was directed 
by the present Uskub to Salonika. 

The whole of these western roads emphasize the 
importance, even in Roman times, of the margins 
of the peninsula, as compared with its centre. 
Thus the now decayed towns in the vicinity of 
Byzantium were of great significance, because of 
their command of routes to the East, to regions 
whose products were sufficiently different from 
those of the west to stimulate an active trade. 
Similarly Salonika and its neighbourhood had the 
great value that they commanded the trade of the 
iEgean — that is, of a region where sea traffic was 
easy, where the inlets and bays allowed ready access 
to an interior of marked relief which yielded a 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 95 

variety of products, from the purely Mediterranean 
fruits of the shore belt to the wood, honey, and 
other forest products of the higher ground. Finally, 
the plains of the Danube to the north, which 
showed marked contrasts to the Mediterranean 
region in climate, natural vegetation, and products 
represented a valuable colonial possession. The 
interior of the peninsula was chiefly of importance 
because it was the key to those lands beyond, and 
had necessarily, therefore, to be penetrated by 
broad military roads, with post-stations and watch- 
houses, stone bridges, forts, and towers at critical 
points, and generally all the Roman paraphernalia 
of empire. 

The road which perhaps expressed at its fullest 
this military character is that of which we have 
not yet spoken, the road which, with its branches, 
has been traversed by so many armed hosts — by 
Roman legions, by Turks, by Crusaders, by trium- 
phant Slavs, by peoples of many races and tongues 
— the great road from Belgrade to Constantinople, 
now functionally replaced by the Orient Express 
Railway. 

In this case the actual line of the road is deter- 
mined by somewhat complex geographical causes, 
and the route was utilized before the Romans con- 
structed their great military way. Without going 
into great detail as to its course, we may note 
that, as is suggested by Fig. 2, the difficulty in 
traversing the peninsula in this direction is due 



96 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

to the fact that to the west the Balkans come 
close up against the central Rhodope mass, and thus 
seem to block the road to the south-east. But the 
great Inter-Balkan valley is prolonged, in the basin 
of Sofia (Fig. 5), almost into the heart of the 
peninsula, and by utilizing its uppermost section, 
road and rail are able to insinuate themselves be- 
tween the loftiest part of the Balkans and the 
loftiest part of the Rhodope. Since, however, the 
basin of Sofia drains neither to the Morava nor 
to the Maritza, but to the Danube by means of 
the Isker, the road has to cross two watersheds 
on its way southwards. 

Its course is briefly as follows : It starts from 
Belgrade and crosses hilly country to reach the 
Morava valley some distance above the swampy 
lower course. It then follows this river to the 
basin of Nish, there ascends the Nishava tributary, 
passes the small basin of Pirot, and crosses at the 
Dragoman Pass (about 2,400 feet), the watershed 
between the Morava and the Isker. It then 
descends to the basin of Sofia, which is a fertile 
depression, standing some 1 ,800 feet above sea- 
level, surrounded by lofty hills, and occupying the 
hydrographic centre of the peninsula. From this 
depression routes, none of them very easy, radiate 
in all directions, and were it not for the fact that 
the total area of fertile land available here is only 
some 100 square miles, and that the climate is 
somewhat extreme, the region would seem to form 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 97 

an admirable centre for a considerable state. The 
relative ease with which Macedonia can be reached 
from Sofia has much bearing upon Bulgaria's 
Macedonian ambitions. 

Beyond the basin of Sofia the Vakarel Pass 
(about 2,450 feet) is crossed between the water- 
sheds of the Isker and the Maritza, and, after pass- 
ing the basin of Ichtiman, the road, but not the 
railway, passes at a height of 2,750 feet Trajan's 
Gate, a point where a narrow valley was spanned 
by a wall with towers, within which was a con- 
stantly watched gate. This point was for long 
the gate between east and west, and in its vicinity 
many battles were fought. It can, however, be 
skirted, and has now no particular importance; 
the railway avoids the gap by following a small 
tributary of the Maritza. 

Once past this point, road and railway alike 
follow the Maritza River till it is necessary to quit 
the river in order to run nearly east to Constanti- 
nople. The most important point on this section 
is the pass in the vicinity of Hermanli, where an 
upland region separates the basin of Philippopolis 
from that of Adrianople (Fig. 5), this upland being 
the region of the frontier between Turkey and Bul- 
garia till 1 9 1 2 . 

An important feature of the Bulgarian part of 
the road, from Trajan's Gate onwards, is the diffi- 
culty of communication southwards over the 
Rhodope with the JEgean seaboard. The Struma 

7 



98 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

valley (Fig. 11), despite the elevation of the land 
through which it flows for a part of its course, is 
the best marked natural line of communication 
here, a point which has also had much influence 
on Bulgaria's policy. 

The Balkans, on account of their narrowness 
and their gentle northern slopes, offer fewer 
obstacles, especially towards their lower eastern 
end. This geographical fact was reflected in Roman 
times by the considerable number of roads which 
reached the Danube from the Maritza valley, as 
it is also reflected to-day by various railways and 
roads. None of these, however, is sufficiently im- 
portant to demand detailed consideration. 

Up to the middle of the fourth century of our 
era the Roman roads just described were lines 
along which a considerable amount of trade was 
carried on between east and west — a trade to which 
the peninsula contributed its metals, its hides and 
leather, its grain. Towards the latter half of that 
century there began that process of immigration 
of peoples from the north and east which disturbed 
all the old conditions, and led to the replacement, 
to a very large extent, of the original Romanized 
population by Slavs and Bulgars. The result was 
a diminution of trade which endured for long cen- 
turies. With the coming of the Crusaders and the 
eyolution of considerable Slav states, a certain 
amount of trade developed between the plains of 
Central Europe and the peninsula, especially along 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 99 

the Belgrade-Constantinople route, but this dimin- 
ished with the arrival of the Turks. At the same 
time the Venetians extended their zone of com- 
mercial activity down the Adriatic to the JEgean, 
and the state of Ragusa began an energetic de- 
velopment of the western part of the peninsula, 
which for long withstood even the influence of 
Turkish domination. 

The inhabitants of Ragusa exchanged the pro- 
ducts of Italy — its silks, cloths, glasswares, the 
products of its arts and skill — for the raw materials 
of the peninsula, especially its iron, leather, hides, 
etc., no less than for the carpets, woven materials, 
and so forth, of the regions beyond, and the lines 
along which this trade was carried on are, no less 
than the earlier Roman roads, of considerable in- 
terest . 

The more important of the medieval routes for 
our purpose are the following. The old Roman line 
which led from the mouth of the Narenta past 
Sarajevo to the Western Morava, and so to Nish and 
Constantinople, or north to Belgrade, again became 
important. The iron deposits of the Kopaonik 
Mountains (see Fig. 4) led to the construction of a 
well-marked trade route, which, like the Roman road 
already described, started from the mouth of the 
Drin, and crossed the Metoya depression to enter 
the Kosovo basin. This road not only permitted 
of the working of the iron-mines on an extensive 
scale, but also connected to the Western Morava 



loo GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

by the Ibar valley, as well as directly to Nish by 
the Prepolatz saddle. Perhaps the interest of this 
medieval trade route may be better appreciated 
when it is mentioned that a part of it— that lead- 
ing from the coast to Prizren in the Metoya basin 
— was traversed by Dr. Kurt Hassert in 1897, 
who described the region then as " more African 
and more unknown than darkest Africa " itself. 
Hassert 's description (" Streifziige in Ober- 
Albanien," Verhandlungen d. Gesellschaft f. Erd- 
kunde zu Berlin, xxiv.) remains still the best 
account of a region which is very difficult of access, 
and the march of a Serbian army by this " Zeta 
road " to the Adriatic coast in the campaign of 191 2 
was regarded as a military feat of some importance. 
In other words, a road which once carried con- 
siderable quantities of a bulky commodity like iron, 
always difficult to convey, was at the end of the 
nineteenth century as unsafe and complicated for 
a lightly equipped scientific observer as the most 
remote parts of the African continent, and in the 
early part of the twentieth was in little better case. 

Other routes by which the Ragusans carried on 
trade were along a part of the Via Egnatia from 
Durazzo to Okhrida, thence along the line of the 
Roman road, mentioned on p. 92, to Sofia, and so to 
the Danube, the shores of the Black Sea, and south- 
wards to Constantinople. Finally, the Via Egnatia 
itself, from Durazzo to Salonika, was utilized. 

This Ragusan trade survived for a long time the 



BALKAN PROBLEMS ioi 

entrance of the Turks into the peninsula in the 
latter half of the fourteenth century; but as the 
Turkish power began to wane after its first military 
successes, and as the incapacity of the conquerors 
to engage either in commerce or in agriculture 
showed its natural effect in the appearance of dry 
rot in their empire, the roads fell into disuse and 
trade dwindled. 

We cannot follow here in detail the slow develop- 
ment of the independent states of the peninsula, 
or the gradually increasing interest shown in its 
possibilities of trade by the chief Powers of Europe, 
with their necessary results in the building of rail- 
ways and the making of roads. It is, however, 
important to realize that in those parts which till 
recently were Turkish, means of communication 
have fallen into the most barbarous condition, as 
compared with what they were in Roman or 
medieval times. Further, as we have already 
hinted, Austria-Hungary's strategical interests have 
led to her opposing any course which would result 
in the connecting of the interior to the Adriatic 
coast, a course which might stimulate Italian in- 
terest in that shore-line. Without labouring the 
point, it may be sufficient to point out that a glance 
at Fig. 7 will show that at present no railway con- 
nects the Adriatic coast with the interior of the 
peninsula, although that interior has far more to 
offer to international trade than it had either in 
the days of the Romans or of the Ragusans, bo 



102 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

periods when good means of communication with 
this shore-line existed. 

The map shows, further, that the independent 
states of the peninsula are fully aware of their needs 
in this direction, as is suggested by the number of 
railway schemes indicated. One important line, 
which, as we have explained above, has always 
been utilized when any trade has been carried on 
in the past with the interior, the direct connection 
between Sarajevo and the Western Morava — i.e., 
between Sarajevo and Ujitze and Nish — is not repre- 
sented among the projected routes. Its absence is 
due to political causes, for the desirability of link- 
ing up the Serbian and Austrian lines in this region 
has already been recognized by the Serbian Parlia- 
ment. Should Serbia in the future acquire rights 
in Bosnia, this junction would no doubt be speedily 
effected. 

The whole subject of natural lines of communica- 
tion is so supremely important for the compre- 
hension of Balkan problems that, at the risk of 
seeming wearisome, we may sum up present con- 
ditions and future desires in so far, at least, as 
Serbia and Bulgaria are concerned. 

If we look once again at Fig. 6, we see that the 
Roman roads ran, broadly speaking, west to east, 
their object being to put Rome in communication 
with the East, from which she might draw supplies. 
Similarly, the existing main routes, as shown 
on Fig. 7, have chiefly for object the putting of 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 



103 




104 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

the states of Central Europe into communication 
with the JEgean and with the East through Con- 
stantinople. Their object is to permit the manu- 
facturing nations of Western Europe to send their 
surplus eastwards, to draw from the East their 
necessary raw materials, so that their general 
direction is north to south or south-east. Now, 
, Serbia and Bulgaria alike yield chiefly grain and 
livestock, with its products. The northern boundary 
of both is formed b}^ the grain and livestock-pro- 
ducing plains of the Save-Danube. Both want 
exits, especially to the Adriatic and to the ^Egean, 
for these afford access to regions where their 
products are in demand. Further, like all states, 
they want to multiply doors for their products, 
Serbia having suffered acutely from economic de- 
pendence upon a single country. Bulgaria, with the 
double barrier of Bosphorus and Dardanelles be- 
tween her and the open sea, wants a frontage on 
the iEgean, and she wants especially what she 
has just failed to obtain : such a frontage on the 
JEgean, such a part of the southern slope of the 
Rhodope mass, as will enable her to use the Struma 
valle}^ — a valley which connects by an easy passage 
at its head with her capital Sofia, and which, with 
the port of Kavala, would give direct access to the 
iEgean from that capital. 

Among Serbia's important markets for her live- 
stock are Naples and Genoa. She wants, and 
wants intensely, to possess such an area in North 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 105 

Albania as would give her command of the old 
Roman ways, as would enable her to open up the 
Kosovo basin and the Metoya depression, to in- 
crease her trade with Italy, to follow a line of 
development which would diminish risk of friction 
either with Greece or with Bulgaria. Unless the 
Romans and the medieval traders were both 
wrong, we can hardly doubt that she is right in 
thinking that the short stretch of the Adriatic coast 
which runs north to south is hers by right of geo- 
graphy, if not of strategy. This, at least, is mean- 
time the main goal of her ambition, and, whatever 
be the exact route it may follow, the Danube- 
Adriatic railway, shown on the map as a line 
partially dotted between Raduyevatz on the Danube 
and San Giovanni di Medua, is for her an object of 
desire which seems worth enormous sacrifices . 

NOTE. 

The account given in this chapter of the Roman and medieval 
roads is in part based upon a series of articles by Kreutzbruck 
v. Lilienfels, which appears in Petermann's Mitteilungen for 
September, October, and December, 19 14, and this should 
be consulted for references and fuller details. The various 
routes suggested for the Danube-Adriatic railway are con- 
sidered in an article, with sketch-maps, which appeared in 
Questions Diplomatiques et Coloniales for March 1, 191 1, and 
a later article in the same journal (December 16, 1913) 
describes the railway schemes of the peninsula generally. 
Serbia's access to the Adriatic is discussed from the Serbian 
point of view by Professor Cvijic in an article in Petermann's 
Mitteilungen for December, 1912, and, briefly, from the 
Austrian standpoint by Dr. Norbert Krebs in the Geographische 
Zeitschrift for January 14, 1915. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE PEOPLES OF THE PENINSULA 

i . The Albanians, and their Unsuccessful 

State. 

The six native races — Religion and race in the Turkish 
Empire — The Albanians, their distribution and characters 
— Their position under the Turks — Their occupations and 
customs — The blood feuds and their results. 

It may seem that we have already delayed too 
long in giving some account of the peoples of the 
peninsula, but they are in point of fact so diverse 
that some acquaintance with its geography is neces- 
sary before their distribution can be discussed with 
any profit. 

Apart from the representatives of alien peoples, 
of which the Armenians and the Jews are the most 
numerous, there are in the peninsula no less than 
six separate races. These are the Albanians; the 
Vlachs, or nomad shepherds — usually regarded as 
at least nearly akin to the Roumanians ; the Greeks ; 
the Serbs; the Bulgars; and the Osmanli Turks. 
In some parts of the peninsula, notably in Mace- 
donia, all six races are represented, but, for a 
reason to be considered later, there is a tendency, 
as the independent states extend their territory, for 

106 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 107 

the people of the newly acquired land to become 
more or less pure of race, or at least to appear pure. 
One or two general points may be considered 
before we proceed to a description of these different 
races. In the first place, in marked contrast to 
Italy, the long-headed, dark-skinned Mediterranean 
race is only represented in the peninsula to an in- 
considerable extent. In Italy itself, while this 
Mediterranean man predominates to the south, 
round-headed Alpine man, in his darker form, is 
increasingly evident towards the north. A similar 
replacement seems to have taken place more 
thoroughly, and at an earlier date, in the Balkan 
region. Before the Greeks reached their prime, 
there seems to have been a large influx of Alpine 
men into their lands, and some geographers have 
sought an explanation of their extraordinary mental 
development in this mingling of races. However 
this may be, there is at least a very strong Alpine 
element in the modern Greeks. The Albanians 
are often stated to represent an almost pure Alpine 
strain, but there is much variety of skull, form, and 
of colouring among them, and there is probably a 
considerable amount of racial mixture. Incident- 
ally it may be noted that Alpine man is at least 
frequently a pastoralist. The Slavs, Bulgars, and 
Turks are also round-headed, but come of different 
stocks from the Alpine race of Central Europe. All 
are believed to have in them Asiatic blood, though 
there is no certainty in regard to this. So much 



108 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

racial mingling has gone on in the peninsula that 
it appears highly probable that the third great race 
of Western Europe — the Nordic — is also represented 
here. Such a statement has, indeed, been made 
in regard to the Greeks, the Bulgars, and even the 
Turks. 

A second general point of much importance is 
that, while it is relatively easy to make general 
statements about the six racial types, yet in actual 
fact the races are often so mingled that the dis- 
crimination of individuals is a matter of the greatest 
difficulty, and, further, the question of race is so 
inextricably mixed with political and racial prob- 
lems that the difficulty of finding a criterion of race 
is almost insoluble. Is it bodily form, or speech, 
or religious sympathies, or political tendencies, or 
local customs, or traditions, which make race ? 
Whatever criterion is adopted, the practical com- 
plications remain the same. The Bosnian is by 
most tests a Serb of pure blood ; yet if he be a 
Moslem, he unhesitatingly describes himself as a 
Turk. A recent author speaks of one Markovic 
who, in about 1850, dwelt in Macedonia, and was 
the master of a Serbian school. His son, another 
nationality being then in the ascendant, some forty 
years later was a Bulgarian priest, his name having 
become Markof ; and unless the fortunes of war in 
the meantime change, there seems much proba- 
bility that the grandson will re-acquire the Serbian 
form of the family name, and become a patriotic 



BALKAN PROBLEMS iog 

Serb. Many other examples of such conditions 
might be given ; it is perhaps enough to say mean- 
time that the peasants of the peninsula have 
wanted for the most part to be free from the Turkish 
yoke — free from any foreign yoke — and that, in 
Macedonia especially, which has suffered longest, 
they have shown no insuperable objection in the 
past to adopting any national^ which seemed to 
promise freedom and undisturbed possession of the 
much-desired plot of land . 

It must be realized, moreover, that the racial 
question must always be a hotly disputed one in 
lands under Turkish rule, for the very simple 
reason that the theocratic state, which permits of 
no incorporation without conversion, can never 
assimilate subject races, and the existence of the 
individual is just tolerable, or quite intolerable, 
according to the strength of the communion to 
which he belongs. The Turkish State recognizes 
no races, only Churches, so that while the Bulgar 
was under the ecclesiastical rule of the Greek 
Patriarch he was officially a " Greek." But there 
is a real distinction of custom, of tradition, of mode 
of life, as well as of race, between the typical 
Bulgar, a " dour " farmer, and the typical Greek, 
a nimble-witted trader ; and thus, in order to satisfy 
his national aspirations, the Bulgar had first of 
all to free himself ecclesiastically from the patriarch 
of Constantinople. 

We cannot do more here than hint in this quite 



110 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

general fashion at the way in which religion has 
complicated politics and racial rivalry in the 
peninsula, but especially in unhappy Macedonia, 
which has suffered almost as much from the rival 
states around her as from the Turks themselves. 
For it has always been an integral part of Turkey's 
policy at once to exclude conquered races from 
her own full citizenship, and to arrange matters so 
that combination among them is rendered im- 
possible by internal rivalries. Generally, we may 
say that, whatever the views of anthropologist or 
geographer, to the Turk there are only two races, 
Turks and others. By becoming a Moslem, any one 
of the " others ' may become a " Turk," and 
thereby enjoy most of the advantages of the 
dominant race, including the power to oppress non- 
Turks. In those lands which remained in name 
Turkish till 191 2, the non-Turks were wooed in 
turn, prior to the war, by Greek, by Serb, by 
Bulgar, even by Roumanian, and their " race ' 
was a little apt to vary with the political fortunes 
of the rival claimants for their sympathies. 

Once again, in their struggle for freedom and for 
internal stability, the various races have had, as 
we all know, the keen sympathies of outsiders, 
which has often expressed itself as an eager partisan- 
ship of one race as against another — partisanship 
which tends to colour even " scientific " accounts 
of the different nationalities. This is a point which 
requires to be taken into account in reading books 



BALKAN PROBLEMS III 

and papers devoted to the peninsula. Till within 
the last few years the Bulgars and the Turks 
respectively were in the fullest enjoyment of 
Western patronage; at present the Serbs seem 
likely to suffer almost as much from unreasoning 
idealization as they did formerly from undeserved 
contempt. 

With these preliminary statements in mind we 
may begin our study of the individual races with 
the Albanian, who, as already mentioned, is often 
stated to be of pure Alpine stock, and is believed 
to be the descendant of very early, if not original, 
inhabitants of the land. According to Serb 
authorities, however, the present Albanian has a 
considerable admixture of Slav blood. 

The home of the living Albanians is, broadly 
speaking, the upland and mountain tract behind 
that north-to-south trending portion of the western 
coast of which we have already spoken so much. 
They do not inhabit the actual coast, which is used 
chiefly for winter pasturage for their flocks. Their 
distribution, like that of so many peoples in dis- 
turbed parts of the peninsula, varies with the 
political conditions. Before the rise of the Young 
Turk party in 1908, the Albanians were the spoilt 
children of the Turks, and then tended to extend 
their territory eastwards at the expense of popula- 
tions formerly Serb . When the Young Turks took 
in hand the task of civilizing the Albanians by 
force, and their land became in consequence the 



112 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

seat of annual disturbances, the} T tended to with- 
draw from Turkish territory, even entering Mon- 
tenegro, with whose people they had earlier been 
engaged in constant feuds. Recent events seem 
to suggest that they now desire to take advantage 
of Serbia's absorption to dominate more and more 
land which since 191 3 has been politically Serbian. 
Politically, the condition of the Albanians has 
always been somewhat anomalous. Like the Mon- 
tenegrins, and for much the same reason — the in- 
accessible nature of their land — they were never 
subjugated by the Turks. But except for the 
short-lived experiment of an independent Albania, 
which was not their doing, unlike the Montenegrins 
they have not been completely free. A certain 
nm iber, especially the larger landowners, accepted 
M 'slemism, and thus became entitled to serve in 
the Turkish Army; they hold administrative posts, 
and generally enjoy the privileges of the dominant 
race. Others are Orthodox, and still others are 
Roman Catholics. All, however, enjoyed until 
the rise of the Young Turk party a very consider- 
able measure of autonomy, notably in exemption 
from excessive taxation. For this the causes were 
multiple. No doubt, in the first place, it is not 
very easy to tax a mountain-shepherd, more 
especially when he has both the power and the 
will to defend himself. But there is more in it 
than this. We have seen in the last chapter that 
the stretch of coast within which the Albanians 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 113 

live is one by which trade with the west, and 
especially with Italy, can be, and has been in the 
past, carried on with relative ease. There was 
thus always here a possible line of entrance into 
the Turkish Empire. The Albanians, a people, as 
we shall see, whose social polity is of the most 
primitive type, formed an excellent and most 
resistant plug in the gap, a defence against the 
entrance of Western civilization whose value to 
the Turk cannot be overestimated. They did not 
want the actual coast; they had no use for roads; 
their virtues and their vices alike are those of a period 
when exchange is not, and the necessity for free 
communication does not present itself. In brief, 
they formed a natural western fortification of the 
Turkish Empire, obtained cheaply at the expense 
of the loss of some taxation. 

But such a defence could not, of course, persist 
in modern times against an energetic attack either 
from within or without. Those qualities in the 
Albanians which are ascribed to chivalry by their 
admirers, and to savagery by their enemies, must 
necessarily disappear when contact with the modern 
world takes place. When the knights of chivalry 
take to commerce, their interests naturally turn 
away from blood feuds, and they learn that there 
are more permanently efficient weapons in the 
struggle for existence than a Martini. The Albanians 
have persisted, and have persisted at their present 
level, in large part owing to the rivalries of Austria 

8 



114 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

and Italy, who have felt, as Britain felt at an earlier 
stage in regard to the other coast of the peninsula, 
that to keep Turkey alive was at least to postpone 
an inevitable but difficult settlement on the 
Adriatic coast. Austria does not want the Serbs 
on the coast here because of possible Serb ambi- 
tions farther north, and their risks; Italy will not 
have Austria here; Austria will not permit Italy 
to occupy any part of the coast. Obviously, then, 
it was better to keep the Turk, with a semi-inde- 
pendent Albania, or, if the Turk had to go, to 
erect an independent Albania. The second alter- 
native presents, however, the complication that it 
is exceedingly difficult to make a nation out of a 
people whose chief amusement is to shoot their own 
brethren, members of rival clans, at sight. The 
game, which is conducted according to very strict 
rules, is undoubtedly one of a most thrilling nature 
— far superior, one would imagine, to fox-hunting 
in excitement ; but it scarcely conduces either to 
social stability or to social development, and one 
can hardly blame the Serbs for feeling that it is 
unreasonable that they should be shut out from 
the Adriatic in order to provide the Albanians 
with extensive man-hunting coverts. There is, 
further, no evidence that the Albanians want to 
be a nation, while one would suppose that with 
judicious treatment they might well, like the High- 
landers of Scotland, become useful elements in 
another nation. 



BALKAN PROBLEMS ' 1 15 

The Albanians are mostly tall, powerful men, 
with black, brown, or even fair hair, of much 
physical strength and great courage, making excel- 
lent soldiers, and, when they have received any 
educational advantages, showing considerable intel- 
lectual capacity. Fischer, writing in 1 893 , estimated 
their numbers at about one and a half millions, of 
whom some 200,000 were in Greece, and nearly 
100,000 in Italy. In 191 3 the number in inde- 
pendent Albania was estimated at about 1,000,000, 
but all such figures are a little suspect. 

The Albanians are regarded as forming three 
groups. In Epirus, where they are in a strong 
minority, they are largely Hellenized, owing to con- 
tact with the Greek majority. Here many are 
Moslems, others Orthodox Christians. The second 
group includes the clans living south of the 
Shkumbi valley, but north of Argyrokastro, clans 
whose members are predominantly Moslems. The 
northern group includes Moslems, Roman Catholics, 
with some Orthodox, living between the Shkumbi 
valley and the Montenegrin frontier, and extending 
inwards through the whole of the Metoya region 
to the Kosovo basin, and, intermixed with Serbs, 
even beyond. These northern tribes, in harmony 
with the isolated nature of the land which they 
occupy, are the least touched by modern civiliza- 
tion. They live in clans, which often carry on 
blood feuds with one another, and their dialect is 
so different from that of the Southern Albanians 



Il6 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

that mutual comprehension is said to be im- 
possible. 

It is these northern tribes which are of the most 
general importance for our purpose, for it is they 
who occupy the region across which Serbia desires 
to advance to the Adriatic. We shall therefore con- 
sider them in a little detail. It must, however, be 
realized that, while the following statements are 
based upon observations made by travellers in 
the interior, and apply to the mass of the people, 
cultivated Albanians, when Moslem, have hitherto 
taken an active part in Turkish administration, 
and have shown great capacity and astuteness. 
Orthodox Albanians have similarly taken an active 
part in Greek life, and at the time of the erection 
of an independent Albania there was a distinct 
attempt on the part of the intellectuals to arouse 
a national life. The difficulties, however, seem 
to be enormous, in view of the isolation of the 
separate clans, their traditional enmities, and the 
religious animosities due to the multiplication of 
creeds. These difficulties have been increased by 
the fact that, till the rise of the Young Turk 
regime, the Moslem Albanians showed a consider- 
able attachment to Turkish rule, while Russia 
extended her patronage to the Orthodox groups, 
and Austria and Italy alike sought to influence the 
Catholics. The influence of Rome has, indeed, 
been considerable, owing to the religious tie, 
strengthened in all possible ways. 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 117 

The Albanians are generally engaged in the 
pastoral industry, sheep and goats, as was to be 
expected under the physical and economic condi- 
tions, predominating. A prosperous man may 
possess some 500 animals, a very rich one some 
1,500. Agriculture occupies the second rank, 
maize, as so generally in the peninsula, being the 
chief crop, with barley and the vine where this is 
possible. The yield of the flocks, especially wool 
and hides, together with forest products, are ex- 
changed for the necessities which cannot be manu- 
factured at home, but the general insecurity and 
the difficulty of communication makes trade insig- 
nificant, and the demands of the people are small. 
The town-dwellers soon become skilful artisans, 
being specially noted for their metal-work. 

As there is little government, and justice is con- 
fined to the rough method of the blood feud, the 
family tie is necessarily strong, and the family — in 
the patriarchal sense— occupies a fortified dwelling, 
perpetually prepared for a siege. 

Hassert (1897) gives the following account of 
conditions in the villages of the southern slopes of 
the North Albanian Alps: " Not even within the 
houses is life secure, and therefore the dwelling- 
places are strongly built of stone, and provided 
with loopholes instead of windows. In many 
villages there are specially strong blockhouses, 
fortified and spotted with loopholes, which the 
men use as common sleeping-rooms, and which 



Il8 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

serve as fortresses in case of attack. The blood 
feuds affect the whole life deeply in that not only- 
single families, but whole villages and clans live 
in a constant vendetta. For this reason inter- 
course is almost null, the cultivation of the land 
is limited to the immediate neighbourhood of the 
hamlets, and a state of war between the different 
communes is the rule. For greater security many 
clans or groups sometimes unite for a time in a 
confederation, and strike with one another the 
so-called ' blood-brotherhood,' or bessa. If one 
member of such a confederation is murdered, the 
whole body is answerable, and the life of any 
chance member of the enemy group must atone. . . . 
Where there is a specially bitter feud, it is held to 
be a matter of honour to kill a guest, for the death 
of such an one brings the obligation of a double 
revenge upon the group under whose protection 
the murdered man was." 

Oestreich, who travelled in the region a little 
farther east a few years later, gives a similar 
description of the region north of Diakova: " The 
village houses are strong, windowless, stone build- 
ings. Riding through such a village as that of 
Detchan, for example, gives one a peculiar sensation . 
At both sides stands a row of staring stone forts, 
built of strong red and grey rough stone, topped 
only by a high chimney or a watch-tower. Towards 
the street are loopholes; towards the court, which 
is often protected by a stone wall, a wooden gallery 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 119 

is erected, in which provisions, maize, straw, fag- 
gots, are piled up, everything being in constant 
readiness for a siege. In the village is no sign of 
life, no children playing or shouting. The peasant's 
boy who drives the cart to the fields, the peasant 
himself as he works — both have a loaded Martini 
hanging over their backs." 

Such a condition, tragic enough, though readers 
of Prosper Merimee's Colombo, will see a strong 
resemblance to those existing in the Corsica of his 
novel, could not persist without some alleviations. 
All travellers note the great faithfulness of the 
Albanians to their plighted word, their rigid 
honesty towards those whom they serve — an 
honesty not regarded as incompatible with the 
practice of brigandage when they are not bound 
by their code of honour. Their attitude towards 
women also is of extreme interest. By most ob- 
servers, especially those who have not come to 
very close quarters with the remoter tribes, it is 
put down to chivalry, and is held to give the 
Albanians a claim to be regarded as the natural 
successors of the medieval knights. Other less 
sympathetic observers have regarded the position 
of women among them as extremely low, and have 
put down the exclusion of the women from the 
blood feuds as a proof of the contempt of their 
fathers and brothers for them — a suggestion that 
they are unworthy of participation in a sacred rite. 
The facts, at least, are simple. The women are 



120 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

excluded from the scope of the vendetta, and, 
further, a man in the company of a woman is safe 
from attack by his blood enemies — a fact which 
has been taken advantage of by astute travellers. 
One result is that most of what trade exists is 
carried on by the women, who can travel in safety, 
alone or accompanied by men, through the lands 
of enemy clans. Without stopping to define 
chivalry, we may note that, if it is true, as H assert 
asserts, that in North Albania 25 per cent, of the 
annual deaths are due to vendettas, the exclusion 
of the women is a racial necessity. Further, as 
maize, straw, and wood can hardly represent, even 
for a frugal Albanian, the whole of the necessities 
of life, some sort of convention of this kind is 
obviously necessaiy to permit of the necessary 
intercourse being carried on. 

A similar trend of social policy is observable in 
the setting aside of certain paths as under " a truce 
of God." The truce, however, includes the path 
only, like the rights of way through some private 
parks in this country, and Hassert has a curious 
tale of four men who injudiciously went to sleep 
beside a well which lay a little off a " peace path " 
in an enemy country, and were promptly shot out 
of hand. He was himself in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood, and heard all day long the ceremonial 
wailing for the dead — " and when the men had 
wailed themselves hoarse, then the women took 
up the alternate cry." But the traveller was too 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 121 

much concerned with his personal safety to appre- 
ciate the romance of this wild scene, with its 
reminiscences of man's early days on the earth, 
and adds curtly that it was more like the bellowing 
of wild beasts than the sound of human weeping. 
It would take, perhaps, a Merimee to interpret for 
us the meaning of that mourning ritual, to depict 
some Albanian Colomba spurring by its means her 
menfolk to a bloody revenge. 

On this note of tragedy we may well leave the 
Albanians, adding only Oestreich's serious-minded 
comment on his own journey: " It is difficult for 
anyone who has not travelled in this neighbourhood 
to realize the strangeness of the conditions ex- 
perienced in journeying through it. Yet, so far as 
scenery goes, it is everywhere attractive, for the 
land is blooming, rich, and well timbered." Had 
he been acquainted with the works of Bishop 
Heber, we feel that a quotation would have in- 
evitably followed. 

NOTE. 

There is a very full treatment of the Albanian question in 
Brailsford's Macedonia (1906), but this, of course, does not 
take into account the great political changes which have 
occurred since, and the geographical aspect of the problems 
involved is scarcely considered. Recent political changes in 
Albania and elsewhere are discussed in Gibbons's The New 
Map of Europe (1914). Siebertz, Albanien und die Albanesen 
(1912) should be consulted, and there are a variety of more 
general works, such as those by Peacock, Miss Durham, and 
so on, from which the characters of the different tribes may 
be gathered. A full treatment of the general question of the 



122 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 



races of the peninsula, with a map, will be found in a series of 
articles by Professor Cvijie, in Petermann's Mitteilungen for 
1913. The subject is there considered from the Serbian 
standpoint, and the distribution of the different peoples is 
discussed in much detail. See also the same author's "Re- 
marques sur l'Ethnographie de la Macedoine " in Annates de 
Geographie, xv. (1906). 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE PEOPLES OF THE PENINSULA {continued) 

2. The Independent States and their 
Inhabitants. 

The Vlach nomads, their customs and their fate — The Greek 
and his place in the life of the Peninsula — Race and 
religion — The coming of the Slavs, Bulgars, and finally of 
the Turk — The present population of Macedonia — Contrast 
between the populations of the independent states before 
and after the 1912-13 wars — The Turk in the Peninsula. 

In the preceding chapter we did not stop to con- 
sider the question whether or not the present 
Albanians can be legitimately regarded as the 
lineal descendants of the ancient Illyrians. The 
subject is one which has led to a considerable ex- 
penditure of ink, but it does not directly concern us 
here. It is sufficient to recognize that, however 
mingled be the blood of the existing Albanians, 
they have at least a connection with very early 
inhabitants of the peninsula. Two other races 
are in similar case, though, again, the purity or 
otherwise of the strain has been the subject of 
fierce discussion. These two are the Greeks and 
the Vlachs, also called Wallachians, Roumanians, 
gipsies, and other names in addition. The latter 

123 



124 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

are a people of considerable interest from many 
points of view, and though their political im- 
portance is small, they seem worthy of a little 
consideration because of the light which their 
history throws upon that of the races within the 
peninsula. 

Typically, they are — or were — nomad shepherds, 
having temporary homes both in the mountains, 
where they pass the warmer period, and in the 
plains, coastal or interior, where they spend the 
winter. While, however, the lowland pastures, 
and thus the lowland dwellings, are necessarily 
scattered, communal life is possible on the heights, 
so that the mountain-village is reckoned as the 
true home. Their characteristic domestic animal 
is the sheep, but they also rear horses and donkeys. 
Their summer pasturages are — or were — to be 
found in all the Central Upland region, from the 
Stara Planina on the frontier between Serbia and 
Bulgaria southwards almost to the extremity of 
Greece, while the Pindus Range in the west has 
also many of these interesting shepherds. In 
winter they frequent the inner plains of Thessaly, 
and also those round the shores of the Ionian and 
JEgean Seas, as well as extending inland along the 
Vardar valley into the inner plains of Southern 
Macedonia, and even into Southern Albania, though 
the pastoral habits of the Albanians themselves 
tend to exclude the nomads from their lands. The 
Vlachs which keep this primitive nomadism own 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 125 

no mountain-pastures of their own, and the in- 
creasing rents they have to pay for grazing rights 
as the uplands become more and more utilized by 
the independent states are a great obstacle to their 
prosperity. Further, while, in the days when the 
land was largely Turkish, the nomads were free to 
wander from crest to crest, the development of the 
separate states, each closed from its neighbour by 
a customs barrier, is a very effective check to such 
free movement. The result is that they tend more 
and more to lose their characteristic nomadism, 
and settle down in villages in the lowlands, where 
they take to the cultivation of the ground, or be- 
come handicraftsmen, and thus are lost among the 
surrounding populations. Many also emigrate. 

In addition to the rearing of sheep, these Vlachs 
for long centuries carried on another occupation, 
which grew naturally out of their chief one. This 
was the carrying on of trade — trade which started 
with the peddling of domestic products, such as 
woven materials from the fleeces of their flocks, 
easily carried by their transport animals, and ex- 
panded, as is easy with a wandering folk, until the 
Vlach merchants were known far into Central 
Europe. But their primitive form of commerce 
naturally diminished with modern conditions, with 
the coming of roads and railways, and the linking 
of the peninsula to the rest of Europe. 

The Vlach nomads have recently been the sub- 
ject of an exhaustive study by two Englishmen, 



126 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

whose book (Wace and Thompson, The Nomads 
of the Balkans, 1914) may be consulted for details, 
especially in regard to their speech, which is 
described as " worn-down Latin." Their connec- 
tion with the present Roumanians of Roumania is 
one of those delicate racial and political questions 
of which the peninsula affords so many examples. 
It is sufficient to say that, while it has given 
Roumania an excuse for interesting herself in 
Macedonian affairs, Roumanian propagandist 
activities have not had great success among the 
Vlachs, partly, no doubt, because of the distance 
between Roumania proper and the Vlach settle- 
ments of Greece and of Macedonia. 

Cvijie, in the article on the ethnography of the 
peninsula, already mentioned (p. 122), gives a few 
lines of description of parties which he encountered 
in 1 9 10, in the act of migrating from the plain 
round Salonika towards the mountains at the time of 
St. George's Day, lines which may be quoted here: 
" Each flock," he says, " contained some thousands 
of sheep, and the flocks were accompanied by the 
shepherds, or cajas, who may be recognized by 
their peculiar, very long staves, whose ends are 
beautifully coiled and carved. Such staves are 
carried by all the shepherds of the Balkan Penin- 
sula. The shepherds had with them their sheep- 
dogs, and behind the flocks appeared an entire 
movable and packed-up Vlach village. The men 
and women ride on horses and asses; the children 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 127 

are placed in side-baskets , forming a kind of pannier ; 
and, in addition, every horse carries carpets, 
blankets, coverlets, cushions, then planks and all 
sorts of timber, and the household utensils. To- 
wards evening the tents were set up by the way- 
side, and here all the people passed the night. 
During my journey I encountered in a single day, 
in some fifteen to twenty flocks, a total of 50,000 
to 60,000 sheep." 

The Vlachs of late years have been undergoing 
a marked reduction in numbers, less, it would seem, 
because they are dying out than because, with the 
political evolution of the peninsula, the place 
which they once occupied — socially and physically 
— ceases to be available, and they merge into the 
other peoples. Thus, while their number at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century was estimated 
at half a million, it had dropped to approximately 
150,000 or 160,000 in 1913. Many have become 
Hellenized, and thus lost in the Greek state, others 
have become Serbs or Bulgars. 

It is obvious from the description which has been 
given that the Vlachs represented a mode of 
eluding the grip of the Turk, socially and politically, 
as the Albanian eluded him physically in his remote 
mountain-fastnesses. Both peoples seem destined 
to enrich the life of the more highly organized 
states into whose general population they tend to 
merge. There is little evidence that either was 
ever capable of founding a stable independent state. 



128 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Of the three peoples in the peninsula who have 
in their veins blood belonging to very early inhabi- 
tants of the area, there remain for consideration 
the Greeks, the only one of the three which has suc- 
ceeded in founding a stable independent state, 
based upon a definite social polity. 

If the question whether the present Albanian is 
or is not an Illyrian has given rise to much dis- 
cussion, that of the relation of the existing Greek 
to the inhabitants of their land in classical times 
has given rise to even more. Again, however, we 
may leave the question aside as not our concern, 
noting only that there is certainly a considerable 
mixture of races among the inhabitants of present 
Greece. Geographically, however, the important 
point is that they have assimilated a large Slav 
element without loss of their own national char- 
acters, for the climate, topography, and produc- 
tions of their land seem unsuited to the Slav type. 
They have also overthrown the Turk, not by 
eluding him, but by bold competition in spheres 
where his qualities are of no avail. If the Slav 
has overcome the Turk owing to his land hunger, 
his passion for cultivation, his willingness to plough 
once again land which has been soaked in the 
blood of his brothers, trodden beneath contending 
armies, the Greek has conquered by his mastery 
of the sea, by his capacity as trader, by his alert- 
ness, by his active participation in the affairs of 
the world outside the sea-fretted mountainous 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 129 

tract which is his home. If the union of the other 
Balkan States is at least conceivable, however far 
it be from practical politics at present, it is difficult, 
on the other hand, to see where common ground 
could ever be found between the farmers and 
shepherds of the north and centre, and the sailors, 
traders, and gardener-peasants of the south. 
Further, if from one point of view we may say that 
the existence in the south of a people with com- 
mercial and trading instincts, town-dwellers in desire 
if not always in fact, whose agricultural lands produce 
chiefly luxuries, and who must therefore import most 
of their cereals and their meat — if the existence of 
such a people forms a fitting pendant to the agri- 
cultural peoples farther north, who have chiefly 
these commodities to sell, yet, on the other hand, 
the tendency of the Greeks to dwell in the coastal 
towns has in it a danger to the peace of the region. 
Till the delicate readjustments of boundaries ren- 
dered necessary by the ousting of the Turk are 
complete, and the process will probably be long, 
there must always be risk of conflict between the 
northern agricultural peoples seeking outlets and the 
sea-traders of the south. The division of territory 
between Bulgar and Greek especially — for we can- 
not suppose that the present division will stand — 
will require careful handling. 

In their struggles to become a nation, the Greeks 
have enjoyed two great advantages as compared 
alike with Albanians and with Vlachs, advantages 

9 



130 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

of which they have made the fullest use. In the 
first place, in marked contrast to both of these, 
who have virtually no written language and no 
native literature, the Greeks have a glorious literary 
tradition, and a rich language, with a single alpha- 
bet. There are several Albanian alphabets. 
Further, their commercial relations make their 
language of importance outside the limits of their 
own race, a marked contrast to the Albanians, 
among whom the dialect of the northern groups 
does not even suffice for communication with the 
southern ones, and is useless for wider purposes. 
Thus the Greek schools and educational institutions 
have been of great importance as instruments of 
Hellenization. 

Second, the fact that, till the Bulgarian schism of 
1873, the Christians of Turkey were placed under 
the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, so that to 
the Turkish authorities an Orthodox Bulgar was a 
' Greek," made the Church also a powerful Hellen- 
izing agent. Its power was, indeed, recognized by 
the Bulgarians when they separated themselves 
off under their own Exarch, despite the excom- 
munication of the Mother Church. The Albanians 
were so remote from Turkish influence that the 
need for enrolling themselves in a single recognized 
ecclesiastical organization did not present itself, 
as it did to the Christian populations near Con- 
stantinople. This has been an obstacle to the 
development of the sentiment of nationality among 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 131 

them . The Orthodox Albanian tribes have naturally 
tended to become Hellenized, or even Slavicized; 
the Moslems look, or did look, towards Turkey; the 
Roman Catholics' interests lie beyond the limits of 
the peninsula; and thus religion, a centralizing 
force in the case of Greeks, Serbs, and Bulgars 
alike, has tended towards racial disintegration in 
the case of the Albanians. On the other hand, it 
may be said that they have been saved in conse- 
quence from the fearful bitterness, with its neces- 
sary results in an imperfectly civilized land, which 
has torn unhappy Macedonia, owing to the un- 
scrupulous use of Church and school by the different 
races as agents in the process of nation-making. 

The distribution of the Greeks is interesting. 
They tend, broadly speaking, to remain within the 
zone of Mediterranean climate and products, and 
where they extend beyond that belt it is chiefly as 
coast-dwellers. Within the Greece of the period 
before the 191 2 war, the population was almost 
purely Greek, with the exception of Vlach islets 
towards the north, especially in the Pindus region 
of the north-west. But this uniformity, it seems 
fairly certain, was due less to purity of race than 
to that power of Hellenization of which we have 
spoken. The conditions in Greece, physical and 
social, left but little room for typical Turk or Slav, 
who would find themselves as depayse as a cockney 
jn Aberdeenshire. To the north-west of the old 
boundary, in Epirus, in land which is now Greek, 



132 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Greeks occur increasingly intermixed with Alban- 
ians as one travels northwards. The new lands 
include also a considerable number of Vlachs, many 
of whom are socialry bound to Greece by their 
habit of wintering on the outskirts of the plains 
of Thessaly. 

To the north and north-east of the old frontier 
Greeks occur mingled with many Turks, and in 
the Salonika region with Bulgars. Travelling east- 
wards into East Macedonia and Thrace, we find 
Greeks again mingled with Turks and Bulgars ; 
while still farther east, along the western shore of 
the Black Sea, the Greeks form a coastal population, 
more or less shutting off the Bulgars from the sea. 
Intermixed with Bulgars, they occur as far north 
as Varna and beyond. Much of the land which 
became Greek in 191 3 thus contained non-Hellcn- 
ized peoples, especially Turks and Bulgars. As 
the assimilation of the Turk is neither possible nor, 
from the Greek point of view, desirable, consider- 
able emigration is going on here. To some extent 
there is an interchange between Greeks in Asia 
Minor, who are returning to the new Greek lands, 
and Thracian Turks, who are taking their places 
in the vacated lands. All such adjustments, how- 
ever, must be interrupted by the war, and by the 
present uncertainty as to the fate of the Turkish 
Empire. 

Again, the feeling between the Bulgars and the 
Greeks is at present so bitter, and the prospect of 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 



133 




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134 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

the Hellenization of the Macedonian Bulgars so 
small, that emigration is likely to continue for 
some time in all the area which has altered political 
allegiance lately . 

Such a process of emigration, we may note, has 
almost always occurred when lands which were 
Turkish changed hands. The Turk, as we have 
seen, can neither assimilate without conversion, 
nor can he be assimilated. When, therefore, in any 
region a change of ownership means the loss of the 
dominant position to which he has been accus- 
tomed, he usually disposes of his propert}? - , and 
follows the Crescent in its retreat. But the bitter- 
ness of religious strife among the Christians them- 
selves, even though the contrast between the 
religion of those who recognize the authority of the 
Greek Patriarch, those under the Bulgarian 
Exarch, and those belonging to the autocephalous 
Serbian Orthodox Church, is political rather than 
religious, this bitterness is such that lands which 
come under the independent states show the same 
tendency to " purify " themselves of non-national 
elements. In other words, in regions such as 
Macedonia, where races are inextricably mixed, 
religious creed tends to take the place of nationality 
as a unifying — and also as a repelling — element. 

Within the lands which in 191 3 were included in 
Greece there is a population of under 4,400,000, but 
not all of these, as we have seen, are Greeks ; and on 
the other hand, many — perhaps an equal number — 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 135 

live outside their motherland, notably in Asia Minor, 
for, despite their intense patriotism, they emigrate 
freely . 

Their distinguishing characters may be gathered 
from what has been already said. One may note, 
in addition, their frugality, a not uncommon 
feature of Mediterranean peoples, for the land is 
not adapted for cereal-growing or cattle-raising on 
the large scale, while at the same time the olive oil 
taken with salads, etc., seems to be more satisfying 
than the starchy foods of the more northern peoples, 
and the wine which is drunk helps to diminish the 
desire for quantities of food. Women occupy a 
somewhat low position, but family life is very pure. 
Though there are many illiterates in the country 
districts, yet the Greek's desire for education is 
very marked. This is partly, as we have already 
seen, because the value of the school in national life 
is thoroughly understood, but is also due to the 
fact that the Greeks leave their native land with 
much readiness in pursuit of openings which its 
relative poverty fails to yield. Thus instruction 
is recognized as a powerful weapon in the struggle 
for existence. The Greek is usually regarded as 
both acute and subtle, and, in addition to ejecting 
the Turk from Greece, has been successful in ob- 
taining both numerical and commercial importance 
in lands which remain Turkish. Thus he is much 
in evidence at Constantinople. The trade of 
Turkey is, indeed, very largely in the hands of the 



136 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Greeks. The immediate problem before the Greeks 
is the question whether they can assimilate the 
new elements in their population, or whether ex- 
tensive emigration will result from their ownership. 
The Greeks are believed to have persisted with 
but little modification through the period of 
Roman domination of the peninsula ; the Albanians 
and Vlachs are possibly connected with Romanized 
members of other early races there; but the three 
remaining peoples are immigrants of various dates. 
The Serbs are the results of the Slav invasions of 
the sixth and seventh centuries of our era. The 
Bulgars came in the seventh century, are supposed 
to be of Finnish origin, and while, from a military 
standpoint, they conquered the Slavs in the vicinity 
of the Balkan range, socially they were greatly 
influenced by them, adopting a Slav language and 
some Slav customs, though they retained certain 
non-Slav characters . Thus they are often described 
as " Slavicized." Finally, in the middle of the 
fourteenth century, the Turks arrived in Europe 
from Asia, and conquered the various peoples of the 
peninsula, owing to their military genius. But since 
the period of their glory they have been undergoing 
a slow process of defeat, caused by their own in- 
capacit}^ to engage with success in any occupations 
save those of arms and administration, and by 
their inability to absorb either the traders or the 
farmers of the land. The process of decay has been 
repeatedly checked by military prowess, their 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 137 

armies having been stiffened by the presence in 
them of Moslems who are only Turks in name ; but 
it has been continuous, none the less. The student 
of the evolution of human society may well find 
comfort in the thought that not all the Turkish 
virtues, not all their military strength, have saved 
them from the slow sapping of vitality, due to their 
divorce alike from the actual tilling of the land, 
and from trade and commerce. Their history 
suggests that the modern world is unsuited to the 
persistence of a people who are by instinct soldiers 
and little more, and that such a people cannot 
be saved even by Krupp guns and German military 
discipline. 

It is well to make clear that to the geographer 
the expulsion of the Turk from the peninsula can 
be justified on the ground that he has failed to 
utilize the land which he has held so long, and on 
this ground alone. He has been within the penin- 
sula a parasite, chiefly upon the ploughing peasant, 
and the effect has been to implant in the mind of 
that peasant a passion for agriculture, for the un- 
disturbed possession of a patch of freehold, which 
is probably as strong here as it has ever been in 
the world. To say, as is sometimes said, that 
Slav and Bulgar are intruders no less than the Turk 
— that the land " ought " to belong to the de- 
scendants of the original inhabitants — is to attempt 
to make abstractions overrule realities. The Vlach 
nomad is extraordinarily interesting; the Albanian 



138 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

is picturesque in the extreme, in spite of his 
preference for a rifle rather than a shirt, on which 
Hassert dwells so reproachfully; the Turk has 
many virtues. All these facts may be granted. 
But human existence upon this earth depends 
ultimately upon the man with the plough; the land 
belongs to the ploughing peoples, for only they 
can utilize it. We need not in point of fact stop 
to consider any questions of abstract " oughtness " 
in connection with Serb and Bulgar's tenure of 
their land, for, short of wholesale extermination, 
it is doubtful if they could be torn from their crofts, 
and however diplomats may draw boundaries, 
there is in the peasant farmer a force which in the 
long-run sweeps away considerations of policy, of 
historical interest, of picturesqueness, of martial 
virtues. He is as difficult to exterminate as he is 
to conquer, and has some of the productiveness of 
the earth he tills, of the vitality of the plant which 
grows from seedling to harvest, despite all the 
perils which threaten it. 

Essentially and fundamentally, Serb and Bulgar 
alike are farmers working their own, mostly small, 
crofts. There are a considerable number of differ- 
ences between the two — differences in character, in 
tradition, in social polity, and so forth — but for 
our immediate purpose they may be regarded as 
generally similar. The Bulgar carries on some 
industries, notably textile, and with his free sea- 
board and free access to the Danube, commerce is 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 139 

easier for him than for the Serb. Only lately com- 
pletely freed from Turkish domination, the libera- 
tion of his land has not proceeded so far as in 
Serbia, but, on the other hand, he is more energetic, 
a harder worker, more easily influenced by Western 
ideas. The Serb is gayer in disposition, disposed 
to take life more lightly, more attractive, but less 
efficient. One might go on with a whole catalogue 
of virtues and vices ascribed to the two peoples 
by various observers, but these are not of very 
great significance. The two, it may be noted, meet 
in an upland, as do the English and the Scotch, 
and while the typical Bulgar differs from the 
typical Serb much as the Aberdeen man differs 
from the Cockney, yet it seems fairly certain that 
between the two extremes there are gradations, 
groups who have the characters of both races in 
a modified degree. Meantime the political hatred 
between the two peoples is intense, but it has 
been stated by those who followed the course 
of the Balkan Wars that the antagonism is far 
greater between educated members of the two 
nations than between the peasants. One would 
fain hope that in the perhaps distant future they 
may come together, in however loose a bond. 

The Serbs occupy Serbia proper, where there is 
little racial intermixture of any kind, save a con- 
siderable Roumanian element on the frontier of 
Roumania, and in religion they are predominantly 
Serbian Orthodox. They also occupy Montenegro, 



140 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OE 

where the people are again of the Orthodox creed, 
and form the majority of the population in Bosnia, 
Herzegovina, and Dalmatia. In the first two, 
however, a considerable number are Moslems, 
while Catholic Serbs predominate in Dalmatia, and 
there are also many in Bosnia and some in Herze- 
govina, so that a religious difficulty intervenes here. 
Farther to the north-west the Slavs of Slavonia 
and Croatia are the same people, but their religion, 
chiefly Roman Catholic, and a certain consciousness 
of superior culture, has hitherto separated them 
from the Serbs proper. 

We have left to the last the question of the 
population of Macedonia, a matter of great diffi- 
culty. In the sandjak of Novibazar the people are 
partly Orthodox Serbs, partly Moslem Serbs, and 
in part Albanians. Farther south, in what was 
once Old Serbia, but is now new Serbia, the per- 
centage of Albanians greatly increases — of this 
there can be no doubt. The region has been one 
of constant ethnological change, and while, accord- 
ing to one view, the Albanians have actually pushed 
the Serbs back, according to another many of the 
inhabitants are " Albanized Serbs," i.e., Serbs of 
race who found it an advantage under Turkish rule 
to become Albanians. There is no doubt that in this 
region Serbia has difficulties before her in the future. 

Still farther south, i.e., beyond Uskub, we come 
to a region which was recognized by Serbia in her 
secret treaty with Bulgaria of March, 191 2, as falling 
^lto a Bulgarian zone, but which is nevertheless now 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 141 

partly Serbian and partly Greek, Bulgaria receiving 
in 191 3 an insignificant part of what was once 
Macedonia (see Fig. 11 and Chap. XIII.). Not un- 
naturally, Serbian authorities now find that " Mace- 
donian Slavs " is a much more appropriate name for 
these peoples than " Bulgarians," while the Greeks 
have suggested that " Bulgarian " is not a race- 
name at all, but merely means " countryman," as 
contrasted with " town-dweller " ! The point, at 
least, is that from a short distance south of Uskub 
to the northern shore of the Gulf of Salonika the 
land is chiefly inhabited by persons who have 
hitherto been attracted to Bulgarian propaganda, 
with whom are mingled many Turks, now, as 
usual in such cases, tending to emigrate, and with 
not a few Vlachs. 

If these statements are compared with what has 
been said above as to the distribution of Greeks in 
Thrace, it will become clear that the 191 3 division 
of territory paid but little attention to nationality. 
In other words, while prior to that settlement 
Greece and Serbia were inhabited respectively by 
peoples who, so far as the vast majority was con- 
cerned, were of one race and one religion, the new 
division of territory means that each has in her 
lands peoples of different race and different reli- 
gion. Bulgaria had before the war a less uniform 
population than the other two, but she also has 
acquired through it new elements, has failed to 
obtain lands inhabited by peoples hitherto of Bul- 
garian sympathies. Much migration is certainly 



142 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

going on, but it is clear that the 191 2-1 3 wars 
must have left an aftermath of trouble which only 
the greater war intervening has prevented from 
becoming apparent. 

Before the 191 2-1 3 wars the Serbs of Serbia 
numbered under 3,000,000. After it the total 
population of the new Serbia was about 4,500,000, 
but, as seen, not all those added were Serbs. About 
500,000 Serbs live in Montenegro, and of the 
2,000,000 persons who live in Bosnia and Herzego- 
vina most are Serbs. 

The population of Bulgaria after the 191 3 war 
was about 4,500,000, but the increase due to it 
was insignificant. It will be noted from these 
figures that the population of Greece, Serbia, and 
Bulgaria, is now approximately the same, Greece 
having the smallest population (4,363,000). Owing 
to the rectification of frontier upon which Rou- 
mania insisted, Bulgaria has lost a considerable 
number of Roumanian subjects; but, on the other 
hand, she has gained Turks and Greeks, as well as 
Moslem Bulgars (Pomaks), hardly to be distin- 
guished from Turks. Prior to the war her popula- 
tion was remarkable, as contrasted with that of 
Serbia, for the considerable number of Turks, as 
well as of Greeks and Vlachs. The war, while 
altering the nature of her population, has not 
rendered it more homogeneous. 

From what has been said above it will be clear 
that the Turks, even in lands which till yesterday 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 143 

were nominally theirs, nowhere form a solid homo- 
geneous mass. In the towns they are pressed upon 
by Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, in whose hands 
rests the commerce of the country. In rural dis- 
tricts the actual cultivators of the land are almost 
always non-Turks, and even where they are defined 
as Turks on account of their creed, they are, in 
fact, generally Moslemized Bulgars or Albanians. 
The true Osmanli Turks may be divided into two 
classes — the landowning, military, and adminis- 
trative class, and a poor and ignorant lower class. 
The landowners take little interest in agriculture 
beyond that of demanding heavy tribute from the 
cultivator, with the result that the land suffers 
from all the disadvantages of large ownership, 
without any of its compensating advantages — such 
as the possibility of long views, of agricultural 
experiments, and so on. The Turkish landowners 
merely exploit the peasant, and have but little 
direct concern with the land. 

NOTE. 

In addition to the articles and books already mentioned, 
especially Brailsford's Macedonia and Cvijic's map, reference 
should be made to Questions Diplomatiques et Coloniales for 
the last four or five years, in which a number of articles on 
Balkan problems by various authors have appeared, many of 
them illustrated by sketch-maps. Tucic's The Slav Nations, 
in the Daily Telegraph War Books, contains some interesting 
historical and political matter. Detailed figures of population, 
so far as these are known, will be found in the annual issues 
of the Statesman' s Year -Book. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE CLIMATES OF THE PENINSULA IN RELATION TO 

AGRICULTURE 

Nation-making factors in states — Comparison between the 
Balkan States and the United Kingdom — Dependence of 
modes of land utilization upon climate in agricultural 
states — Types of climate in the peninsula — Range of the 
Mediterranean climate — The Continental climates of the 
north and centre — Climatic control of maize and wheat 
production — The natural vegetation of the peninsula. 

From our study of the races of the peninsula in 
the two preceding chapters, two facts of interest 
emerge. We have seen in the first place that there 
are no less than six races within the region, of whom 
three are apparently the modified descendants of 
earl}'' inhabitants, while the others are immigrants 
of different ages. Thus the first fact is the multi- 
plicity of racial types. The second is that there is 
in the independent states, excluding Turkey, a 
marked tendency towards a real or apparent racial 
purity. This has two causes — emigration and 
assimilation. 

In the first place, when lands which have been 
Turkish change hands, Osmanli Turks, and also 
members of other races who have become Moslems, 
often emigrate. But though such emigration in 

i 44 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 145 

earlier days tended merely to sift out Moslems from 
Christians, of later years, owing to the increasing 
bitterness among the Christians, a similar process 
of segregation seems tending to take place among 
them, and is said, for example, to be leading to an 
emigration of Slavs with Bulgarian sympathies 
from those parts of Macedonia which have become 
Serbian or Greek. Of more permanent importance, 
however, as a factor producing homogeneous 
peoples, is the tendency for representatives of 
other races to become merged in the general popu- 
lation of the states whose lands they occupy, so 
that Albanians in Greece become Greek; Vlachs 
become Greek or Serbian, according to the state 
in which they find themselves ; the not incon- 
siderable Roumanian population of the north-east 
of Serbia is content to become " Serbian," and so 
forth. The phenomenon is of the greatest im- 
portance for the future prosperity of the individual 
states, for it is clear that no nation can persist in 
the modern world unless it has this power of absorb- 
ing alien elements. Before means of communica- 
tion reached their present development, a nation 
could, like the Japan of earlier days, shut itself 
off from the world. Now this is impossible, and 
since the independent Balkan States have not, 
broadly speaking, well-marked natural frontiers, 
their persistence must depend upon their assimi- 
lating power. Turkey has decayed because she 

has not only failed to assimilate other races, but 

10 



MO GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

has actually stimulated national feeling among 
those which she has hitherto included in her empire. 

We have suggested in the last chapter tin 
considerable part that the tradition o\ past glorii 
especially as enshrined in literature and organized 
in the Church, has played in the development of 
the idea of nationality among the Greeks. The 

me thing has happened in the case of the Serbs, 
and also, though less markedly, in the case oi the 
Bulgars. The Serbs have been greatly assisted, 
not only by their national history of a glorious past, 
and by their folk-songs and legends, but also by 
the degree in which they have shared in the Slav- 
tradition generally, and by the existence of the 
great Slav nation of Russia. But it seems clear 
that in the case of no one of th< three considerable 
states will such nation-making factors suffice alone. 
To survive, a nation must have it> own social polity 
based upon a particular mode of life, depending 
ultimately upon the characteristics — climatic, 
physiographic, economic, and so forth — of the 
particular tract of land which it inhabits. 

A brief survey of the conditions which prevail 
in Great Britain may perhaps serve to make this 
point clear. The three countries of Scotland, 
England, and Wales were originally inhabited by 
nations separated from one another not only 
physically by upland belts, but also by marked 
differences of social polity. Scotland, a poor 
country with a climate generally unsuited for the 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 147 

cultivation of wheat, the most valuable cereal, and 
less suited than England for the more productive 
branches of the pastoral industry, had originally 
many contrasts with the latter country, which 
produced wheat in abundance, fine wool, and was 
generally agriculturally rich. Wales, with certain 
climatic and topographic resemblances to Scot- 
land, but without that country's important fisheries 
and tracts of fertile land, was again different from 
both. The fact that the three have combined to 
form what, despite ebullitions of local patriotism, 
is one single nation, is due chiefly to the fact that 
all three have become predominantly industrial, 
that all contain coal. Their proximity is also, of 
course, a very important factor in the modern 
world . 

The merchants of Glasgow, Dundee, Manchester, 
Cardiff and the other great cities, recognize a com- 
munity of interest which makes common action 
possible; the miners of South Wales and those of 
Northumberland, the railwaymen of the island at 
large, and so forth up and down the industrial 
social scale, are far more closely bound together 
by their economic relations than they are separated 
by their original racial differences. In the same 
way, if it seem that the new nation has to some 
extent failed to assimilate the agricultural, as con- 
trasted with the industrial, population of Ireland, 
the reason, for the geographer, is to be sought in 
the fact that this rural people has not felt the 



148 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

welding influence of the community of economic 
interest. Their interests as farmers and cattle- 
breeders are indeed in many ways opposed to those 
of the industrial majority. 

Now, though the Greek by instinct is largely, as 
we have seen, merchant and trader, yet the hitherto 
undeveloped state of his country makes the cultiva- 
tion of the land there the most important industry, 
as it is in the peninsula generally. If, then, there 
are any real nation-making factors in the peninsula, 
it must be because different types of land utiliza- 
tion prevail in its different parts, and such differ- 
ences of type, to be permanent, must in turn rest 
upon climatic difference. We shall hope to show 
that there are real differences of climate, and thus 
of productions, at least between the northern con- 
tinental and the southern truly peninsular parts of 
the peninsula, a difference which has been of much 
importance in the differentiation of the nations. 
Greece has been successful in absorbing a con- 
siderable Slav element because the typical Slav 
mode of life is unsuited to Greece. The Greek 
tends, as we have seen, to follow the coast where 
the Mediterranean mode of life is possible, and can 
extend a certain distance inland into the " con- 
tinental ' area, especially where his own plants 
can thrive. But there comes a time when, as 
Greek, he cannot compete with the Slav cultivator, 
and he must either become Slavicized or return to 
the land which is climatically and agriculturally his. 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 149 

If we take an analogy from animal life, we may 
point to such a case as that of the brown bear of 
the northern forest belt and the polar bear of the 
Arctic wastes. No actual physical barrier prevents 
the brown bear of the taiga or forest region of 
Siberia from travelling north across the tundra to 
the icy margin of the polar sea, and similarly no 
physical barrier prevents the polar bear from 
travelling south, but in each case the animals are 
adapted to a particular mode of life, and the dis- 
tribution of the physical basis of that mode of life 
determines their distribution. We must not of 
course press the analogy too far, for man is especi- 
ally remarkable for his extraordinary adaptability, 
but it has none the less a certain value. 

If this be so, then obviously we must study next, 
first the conditions of climate and the associated 
natural vegetation, and then the modes of land 
utilization in the different parts of the peninsula 
as influenced by these. 

Before proceeding, however, to the question of 
climate, let us compare the four independent 
states of the peninsula (we may omit Albania), as 
they stood at the time of the 191 3 settlement, 
with England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The 
diagram (Fig. 9) shows the general contrast as 
regards both area and population. The total area 
of the British Isles, in round numbers, is 121,000 
square miles, that of the four Balkan states 125,000 
square miles. The contrast of population is strik- 



150 



GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 



ing, a total of 45,000,000 for the British Isles, as 
contrasted with one of 14,000,000 for the four 
Balkan States in 191 3. The contrast is of course in 






















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Fig. 9. — Comparison of the Area and Population of the 
Countries of Great Britain with those of the Inde- 
pendent Balkan States in 1913. 

The long columns show comparative areas, the shaded columns 

within population. 

part that between thinly peopled agricultural states 
and densely peopled industrial ones; but, on the 
other hand, we have to remember that both Serbia 






BALKAN PROBLEMS 151 

and Bulgaria have soils and climates much better 
fitted for agriculture than those of Scotland 
or Ireland. Indeed, the figures show that the new 
Serbia, a considerable part of whose lands have 
been ruined by centuries of oppression, and whose 
agriculture even in the older part is still somewhat 
undeveloped, has, with an area comparable to that of 
Ireland, a slightly greater population, here entirely 
agricultural, while that of Ireland is partly indus- 
trial. There can be no doubt that with peace, 
improved outlets for her surplus products, and 
better methods of agriculture, the lands of Serbia 
would support a far denser population. 

The diagram indicates the general relation of 
area between the separate countries of the British 
Isles and the Balkan States. A word or two about 
comparison of distances may help to prevent the 
following account of climate from being too 
abstract. 

The distance between the extreme north of 
Serbia and the south of Greece is comparable to 
that between Caithness and Cornwall, about nine 
degrees of latitude in both cases. But, owing to 
the fact that Ireland forms a separate mass of 
land, the distance of the interior of the peninsula 
from the sea is greater than in the case either of 
Ireland or of England. This helps to make the 
Balkan climates more extreme. Taking a few 
actual figures, we may note that the distance 
between Belgrade and Salonika, in a straight line, 



152 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

is about the same as that between Edinburgh and 
London. The distance between Belgrade and 
Athens is somewhat greater than that between 
Inverness and London (approximately in the rela- 
tion of 500 to 450 miles). Again, while the dis- 
tance between Antivari and Burgas — i.e., right 
across the peninsula — is about 445 miles, that 
between Aberystwyth and Yarmouth — that is, 
across England — is only 245 miles. Further, as we 
shall see, the climatic contrasts between the different 
parts of the peninsula are very much greater than 
those to be found within the British Isles. 

The first point to realize is that although Greece 
(apart from Crete) reaches as far south as 36 
North Latitude — that is, as far as the extreme 
south of Spain and farther south than Sicily, and 
though the most northern point of Serbia only 
reaches 45 — that is, the latitude of Turin and 
Bordeaux — yet a relatively small part of the 
peninsula falls into the zone of Mediterranean 
climax. The orange, which grows (if not very 
well !) on the Riviera coast of France, is limited 
in the peninsula to parts of Greece proper and 
parts of the west coast outside Greek lands. The 
olive, abundant on the shores of Lake Como and 
in Provence, is only found in the Balkan region 
on the Adriatic coast, in Greece, and round the 
shores of the ^Egean. Those western coastal 
mountains which have cut off the interior of the 
peninsula from " European " culture, cut it off 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 153 

also from the influences of the Midland Sea, and 
thus the centre and the east of the " continental ' 
part of the penisula is Mid-European in climate, 
showing a tendency to pass into the extreme, dry, 
East European zone as we travel eastwards. 

On the other hand, if the winter cold, the fre- 
quent frost and snow of that season, make the 
growth of the delicate Mediterranean trees im- 
possible over much of the area, we have certain 
compensating advantages. The Mediterranean 
region generally is largely denuded of its always 
scanty forest, and this is true also of the Adriatic 
shore-line of the Balkan Peninsula and of Greece 
generally. But inland, in the mid-European 
climatic zone, we have extensive forests of oak 
and beech on the low ground, with some conifers 
on the higher. If the Adriatic coast, like many 
regions in the Western Mediterranean, has but 
scanty summer vegetation on its sun-baked, 
drought-stricken limestone hills, farther east the 
melting of the winter snow, the copious summer 
rains, give abundant pasture for cattle, sheep, and 
goats. If in Serbia the plum (prune) replaces the 
figs, pomegranates, almonds, oranges, etc., of the 
south, we have to remember that the summer 
rain which swells its fruit makes the growth of 
wheat and maize possible, while the severe winter 
cold checks the multiplication of plant and animal 
pests. 

Briefly, then, the Adriatic coast-line outside of 



154 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Greece (but especially its southern portion), Greece, 
and the northern shores of the JEgean, now partly 
Greek, have the typical Mediterranean climate- 
best marked to the south. In this climate the 
winters are mild, the summers not hot considering 
the latitude. Rain is scanty or totally absent in 
summer, while there is a considerable amount in 
the cooler period of the year, sometimes in winter 
proper, sometimes in autumn and spring. Thus 
annual plants will not grow during the hot season 
unless water is artificially supplied, and the 
peasant's work at this season is mostly given to 
the deep-rooted, fruit-bearing trees, such as orange, 
olive, vine. In the southern part of the area the 
summer is absolutely rainless, making, for instance, 
Athens intolerabty dry and dusty in summer. The 
northern limit of the rainless summer runs in 
Greece from the Gulf of Volo to that of Arta. 
Further north there is always some rain in the 
hot season, and on the northern part of the 
Adriatic coast, where the total rainfall is very 
high, there are drenching autumn rains, in addi- 
tion to a certain amount throughout the summer. 

Outside of the limits of the zone of Mediter- 
ranean climate — and on the Adriatic coast this zone 
is excessively narrow — we come to a region where 
the winters are cold, often very cold, with much 
snow and frost, where the summers are relatively 
hot, and where there is rain at all seasons. In 
Serbia and much of Bulgaria, though rain may be 






BALKAN PROBLEMS 155 

expected at all seasons of the year, it is especially 
heavy in summer, and diminishes towards autumn 
This is the typical maize climate, for that tall 
plant, with its fleshy stem and numerous leaves, 
requires much water while it is growing, but must, 
of course, have a dry period for harvesting. The 
result is that maize is the characteristic bread 
plant of the peasant, alike in Serbia and Bulgaria. 
As we pass eastwards in Bulgaria the summer rain 
tends to diminish in total amount, and to be more 
and more restricted to the early part of the warm 
season. This climate is better suited for wheat 
than for the water-demanding maize, and in Bul- 
garia generally, as contrasted with Serbia, the pro- 
duction of wheat is greater than that of maize. 
The reason is partly, though, no doubt, not wholly, 
climatic; economic causes must also exert some 
influence, wheat being more valuable than maize, 
and agriculture more advanced in Bulgaria than in 
Serbia. In addition to this contrast as regards 
rainfall between Serbia and Bulgaria, it is notice- 
able that in the north of the latter country the 
winters are colder but shorter than in Serbia — 
i.e., we are approaching the typical wheat climate 
of South Russia. 

In Southern Bulgaria, in the region which used 
to be called Eastern Roumelia, the climate is some- 
what less extreme than farther north, forming what 
is called a modified Mediterranean type. This is 
due to the presence of the west-to-east chain of 



156 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

the Balkans, which shelters the lands beyond from 
the cruel north winds of winter. ■ The appearance 
of the rose gardens of Kazanlik in the lee of the 
mountains is thus a phenomenon entirely com- 
parable to the appearance of lemon-tree and olive 
on the shores of Lake Garda, trees which are 
entirely unsuited to the plain of Lombardy farther 
south. Further, the Inter-Balkan valley gets 
heavy rain, which helps to account for its great 
fertility, but farther south the total rainfall 
diminishes, and both the middle and lower Maritza 
basin surfer from lack of sufficient rain. This 
is especially true of the region to the east of 
Adrianople (Thracian steppe), and partly accounts 
for the small population here. Geographically the 
small rainfall in this region is of interest because 
it helps to cut off Constantinople and its vicinity 
from the peninsula proper. The famous Enos- 
Midia line, which Bulgaria hoped to obtain for her 
frontier towards Turkey in the 191 2-1 3 settle- 
ment (see Chapter XIII.), does to some extent 
correspond to a region of scanty population such as 
forms a useful boundary. 

As words like " mild," " cold," " hot," etc., 
convey very different ideas according to the previous 
knowledge of the reader, it may be well to illustrate 
the above general account by a few details. 

Let us take first winter temperatures. January 
is normally the coldest month, so that the mean 
January temperature of any place gives a general 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 157 

idea of the cold of winter. Now, all the northern 
parts, alike of Serbia and of Bulgaria, have a mean 
January temperature of below freezing-point, the 
actual temperature falling as one advances towards 
the north-east — i.e., to Bulgaria north of the 
Balkans. The reason is, of course, the absence of 
any mountain barrier against the icy winds which 
blow from the snow-covered plains of Russia. The 
temperature naturally also falls with elevation, so 
that Sofia, placed at a height of 1,800 feet, but in a 
latitude considerably south of Cannes, has a mean 
temperature in January 3 below freezing-point, 
and has often periods of extremely low tempera- 
ture. Ragusa, in almost the same latitude, but 
enjoying the advantage of the proximity of the 
Adriatic and of the winter pressure conditions 
which prevail there, has a mean Januar}^ tem- 
perature of nearly 48 , while at Corfu the figure 
is nearly 50 . 

Even these figures, however, perhaps fail to give 
the full measure of the contrast between the actual 
winter temperatures in the east and those which 
one would be disposed to expect on account of the 
latitude. Perhaps the matter may be made clearer 
by pointing out that only on the Adriatic coast 
south of Spalato and in Eastern Greece south of 
the plain of Thessaly, is the winter as mild as it is 
in the south-west of Ireland and England, while 
the January of Salonika, in about the latitude of 
Naples, is as cold as that of Edinburgh. 



158 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Further, in all the northern region the winter 
snowfall is considerable. In Serbia generally frost 
maybe expected on more than ioo days per annum. 
At Sofia a figure so high as 43 has been given as the 
average number of da}'s in the year on which snow 
may be expected to fall. Even on the lower ground 
to the north snow may be expected to lie for a con- 
siderable time, and while no mountain in the 
peninsula rises above the snow-line, Durmitor in 
Montenegro (about 8,550 feet) is comparable to our 
own Ben Nevis in that patches of snow remain in 
sheltered places throughout the year. The snow 
here is of some importance in giving a summer 
water-supply in what is otherwise a waterless lime- 
stone region. Further, the Rila Dagh, the highest 
complex of the Rhodope (highest peaks rising to 
well over 9,000 feet) only loses its snow for about 
one month of the year, and the higher summits of 
the Balkans keep some of their snow till July. 

In marked contrast to the winter conditions is the 
hot summer, with its copious rainfall in the north 
and centre, its drought in the south and south- 
west. In spite of its elevation, Sofia has a mean 
July temperature of 73 °, a mean which it is perhaps 
needless to say is nowhere reached in the British 
Isles. Much of Greece, including the plain of 
Thessaly, which is so cold in winter, has a mean 
July temperature of well over 8o°, and Macedonia, 
also very cold in winter, has a summer temperature 
only a degree or two lower. Indeed, only a com- 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 159 

paratively small area to the north has a July mean 
below 75 . 

We are so accustomed to dwell upon the advan- 
tages of our own mild, moist, and equable climate 
that it may not be amiss to repeat that, for agricul- 
tural purposes, and especially for the cultivation 
of cereals, these fierce alternations of winter and 
summer, with snow to moisten the land at the 
beginning of the growing season, and heavy summer 
rain to encourage the development of leaf and 
temperate fruit, is most admirably adapted. Only 
the shortness of the growing season is a disadvan- 
tage towards the north. It can thus be realized 
that Macedonia, with a longer growing season, 
with a generally adequate rainfall, which can be 
supplemented if need be by irrigation, is a promised 
laud to Serb and Bulgar alike. One can under- 
stand also why the Turk has clung to it so des- 
perately; for the labour of its peasants has fed 
him, its productive basins, warmed by the summer 
sun, moistened by the summer rain, have left to ( 
those cultivators a bare margin of subsistence, 
even after the rapacity of Turkish landowner and 
Turkish tax-gatherer has been satisfied. If despite 
the ignorance, the poverty, the depression of the 
peasant, despite frequent massacres and almost 
constant unrest, these lands have done so much, 
what might they not yield under more favourable 
conditions ? 
The plant-life of the peninsula has been inves- 



i6o GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

tigated in much detail, but for our purpose it may 
be treated very briefly. The special feature of the 
north and centre, and indeed generally of all parts 
except the narrow strip along the west coast 
which has the Mediterranean climate, Greece, and 
the regions of somewhat low rainfall in the east, 
is that they were originally rich in forest of the 
Central European type. Much of this has been 
cleared. Under Turkish rule the woodlands were 
treated with the same contemptuous disregard as 
the other resources of the region, and the wide- 
spread peasant proprietorship in Serbia and Bul- 
garia has rendered systematic forestry a matter of 
great difficulty. Bulgaria is making deliberate 
efforts to improve her forestry industry, to pre- 
serve the remaining forests, and to insure planting. 
Serbia is still somewhat behind. 

In both cases the existing forests cover some 
30 per cent, of the total area of the country, and in 
both deciduous trees, especially oak and beech, 
but also ash, elm, lime, willow, poplar, and so 
forth, are the chief trees. Coniferous woods are 
less important. Here, as elsewhere, the difficulties 
of reconciling the interests of forestry and of the 
pastoral industry are considerable. 

But while Serbia's territories, both the older 
parts and those which she acquired in 191 3, fall 
generally into the zone of Mid-European forest, 
there is more variety in the plant cover of Bul- 
garia, as there is also in her climate. The Rhodope 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 161 

upland and the Balkans, as well as the long northern 
slope of these, have, with local variations, the same 
general types of plant associations as Serbia. 
But the diminished rainfall south of the Balkans, 
and the way in which the plains of East Roumelia 
and Thrace are ringed by upland, give these a type 
of vegetation described as " modified Mediter- 
ranean." While forests occur in parts of these 
areas, in certain localities the summer drought is 
too severe for trees to nourish, and land with 
steppe characters appears, especially in Thrace 
(c/. p. 156). In these steppes even shrubs are 
rare. In spring the land is gay with springing 
grasses and with many bulbous plants, but in the 
height of summer most of these dry up and dis- 
appear, and thorny composites, such as thistles, 
as well as many prickly umbelliferous plants, give 
the landscape a dreary and desolate aspect. With 
the autumn rains the grass grows again, and another 
series of bulbous plants, such as the autumn 
colchicum, a true crocus, an autumn scilla, and 
so forth, bring back a pale shadow of the spring 
splendour. 

Again, in the part of the Dobrudja which till 
191 3 was Bulgarian, the summer drought, combined 
with the singularly porous nature of the soil, 
produces a somewhat similar steppe type of land- 
scape. Thus, as compared with Serbia, Bulgaria 
has a greater variety of natural plant formations, 
and we have the presumption that she will be able 

11 



162 BALKAN PROBLEMS 

to produce a greater variety of crops. To put the 
matter in another way, while the climate and 
natural vegetation of Serbia are of a more or less 
uniform Central European type, Bulgaria, alike in 
climate and in natural vegetation, shows a com- 
bination of Mid-European and Mediterranean types, 
and, in the extreme east, even of the East European 
one. Thus, from the point of view of climate and 
products, as from that of race, she is less homo- 
geneous than Serbia. 

In Greece — that is, in the region of Mediter- 
ranean climate — where the forest cover has not 
been completely destroyed, the characteristic ever- 
green, small-leaved trees occur. High forest is, 
however, rare, and that scrub thicket which is 
called maquis is frequent. Where elevation in- 
creases the rainfall, as happens frequently in 
mountainous Greece, deciduous trees appear on 
the sides of the hills, and the noble chestnut becomes 
important. 

NOTE 

Details in regard to the climates of the peninsula will be 
found in Hann's Klimatologie, while the Mediterranean 
climate is fully treated in Philippson's Das Mittelmeergebiet. 
Two volumes of Engler und Drude's series called Die Vege- 
tation der Erde, are devoted to parts of the Balkan lands, 
these being Die Vegetationsverhaltnisse der illyrischen Lander, 
by Beck von Mannagetta, and Die V egetationsverhaltnisse der 
Balkanlander, by Adamovie. 



CHAPTER X 

MODES OF LAND UTILIZATION 

i. The Unfree Peasant in Thessaly. 

Thessaly as a transitional area — Physical features and climate 
— The hill region and the migratory shepherd — The gar- 
dener - peasant on the mountain - slopes — The ploughing 
peasant in the plains — Land-ownership in the plains — The 
half-shares system — Peasant proprietors — Condition of 
agriculture — The conditions in Thessaly and the problems 
of the peninsula generally. 

We shall begin our survey of the modes of land 
utilization in the peninsula with a consideration in 
some detail of the province of Thessaly, which has 
the great interest of being a transitional area. 
Thus, in the structure of its surface, in the pre- 
vailing land forms, in the climate, in the natural 
vegetation, it is intermediate in character between 
Greece proper and Macedonia. Historically it was, 
till the territorial changes of 191 3, the part of 
Greece most recently emancipated from Turkish 
domination. Though the Turks quitted the prov- 
ince in 1 88 1, they re-entered it during the 1897 
Greco-Turkish War, and during the intervening 
period many Turkish landowners remained in Greek 
Thessaly. Only after the peace negotiations had 
given the province back to Greece did the Turkish 

163 



164 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

population begin to follow their flag in the usual 
fashion, and thus though the population is now 
almost entirely Greek, this is a recent phenomenon. 

Further, the Greeks, in 1881 , said that the Turks 
cursed this fertile land as they quitted it, which is 
only another way of saying that the long Turkish 
occupation left a legacy of difficult problems which 
the present owners have not yet been successful 
in solving. Thus a study of the province throws 
a considerable amount of light on the conditions 
which exist in Macedonia and elsewhere, and will 
help us to appreciate the wider problems presented 
by the peninsula generally. 

The Greek province of Thessaly covers a much 
smaller area than the country to which the ancients 
gave that name, for much of the latter remained 
Turkish till 191 3. Greek Thessaly is a region con- 
sisting of a combination of wide, nearly level 
basins, encircled by mountains, and of hilly tracts 
(Fig. 10). To the west it is bounded by the slopes 
of the Pindus range, to the east by the ^Egean. 
North we have the Khassia Mountains, south the 
Othrys. Now, the Pindus range is a part of the 
great western system of folded mountains, the 
mountains which, deeply interpenetrated by the 
sea, form the greater part of Greece proper. But 
in Thessaly we find the wide, swampy basins of 
which we have spoken so much in the case of 
Macedonia — though those in Thessaly are larger 
than most of the Macedonian ones — separated, like 






BALKAN PROBLEMS 



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166 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

those of Macedonia, from one another by mountain 
or upland. In other words, that intermediate belt 
of which we spoke on p. 13 is here continued into 
Greece, giving broad, level, inland plains capable 
of being ploughed, such as are otherwise rare in 
Greece, where the plains are mostly near the coast. 
The coast-line of Thessaly has the characteristic 
Greek feature of dissection by the sea. Thus, the 
long Magnesian peninsula extends in a south- 
easterly direction, and towards its lower end bounds 
the Gulf of Volo. The peninsula itself has a con- 
spicuous mountain backbone, of which the most 
striking features are the famous peaks of Pelion 
(5,300 feet), and Ossa (6,405 feet) to the north of 
the peninsula proper. South of Pelion the peninsula 
narrows greatly, and turns to the south-west, so 
that its extremity is hook-shaped. Within the 
hook lies the almost circular gulf, which is nearly 
land-locked. Further, while the encircling land 
shows in several places a coastal plain, most con- 
spicuous in the case of the Almyros plain on the 
western shore of the gulf, yet behind this plain, 
where it exists, the ground rises steeply to hills or 
mountains, and passes have to be crossed to the 
interior plains of Thessaly. The lowest pass is 
that which, at a height of about 445 feet, leads to 
the wide basin and the town of Larissa. It is 
worth giving a little attention to these points 
of detail, for, save that the basin of Volo has been 
flooded by the sea, this condition of mountain-girt, 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 167 

isolated, fertile basin is that which occurs again 
and again in Macedonia. Historically, however, 
the topographical accident which has here per- 
mitted the entrance of the sea has had great 
influence. 

The history of Greece generally has not been 
the history of Macedonia, because the Greek 
peasant could escape by water, an element over 
which the prudent Turk refrained from following 
him. Further, while the Macedonian peasant, 
when in time of stress he lifted his eyes unto 
the hills, knew that those hills could at best only 
feed his flocks for a period of the year, and had 
little else to offer him, the Greek found on the 
western slopes of the Magnesian Hills a climate 
where he could grow his characteristic plants, and 
he found there also a considerable amount of safety 
from the Turk, for his vineyard and olive-grove 
were scarcely worth the robbing. Paradoxical as 
the statement may seem, therefore, to the Greek 
the flooded basin of Volo remains to this day a 
more valuable possession than the fertile basin of 
Larissa, or the higher one of Karditsa. When 
economic pressure drives him from the well-culti- 
vated hillsides which surround the Gulf, he tends, 
oddly enough, to go across the sea, and this although 
the arable lands of the inner plains of Thessaly are 
crying for labour. In other words, as the Vlach or 
the Montenegrin or the Albanian tends to evade 
the Turk by becoming a shepherd on the mountains, 



1 68 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

so the Greek, in his warmer climate, evades him by 
becoming a gardener on the lower but still steep 
slopes of the hills. In the peninsula generally only 
the Slav and the Slavicized Bulgar can, it would 
seem, keep through centuries of Turkish oppres- 
sion an unabated passion for the arable land of the 
inland basins, regions in which there is no hope of 
evading the tax-gatherer and the bey, no eye to 
pity and no hand to save. 

We have spoken of the two inner plains of 
Thessaly — that of Larissa and that of Karditsa. 
The map shows their relations, and shows also that 
both are drained b} T the factors of the River Peneos 
(Xerias), which cuts through the belt of upland 
separating the two plains, and then, instead of 
continuing south-eastwards as it " ought " to do, 
and passing Lake Karla on its wa}^ to the Gulf of 
Volo, turns north and then north-east to enter the 
iEgean through the far-famed Vale of Tempe. 
The lower basin, that of Larissa, stands some 
300 feet above sea-level, and covers an area of 
some 343 square miles. The upper basin is larger, 
but slopes upwards to the west, so that parts of 
it lie at a considerable elevation. Near the towns 
of Trikkala and Karditsa the height is under 
450 feet, but if all land below 1,300 feet is included, 
the plain may be said to have an extent of about 
^30 square miles. 

As regards climate, w r e have already stated that 
in Thessaly this is relatively extreme. Another 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 169 

important fact is the considerable climatic varia- 
tion when the wide basins are compared with the 
slopes near the coast. The basins of Larissa and 
Karditsa are practically treeless ; in winter they are 
excessively cold, snow occasionally lying on the 
ground for weeks. In summer they are rapidly 
heated up, and since, as already seen, Thessaly 
lies near the limit of the rainless summer (p. 154), 
there is well-marked summer drought. Further, 
the plains, especially the western one, lie in the 
lee of the Pindus range, and in spring are ex- 
posed to a devastating wind which descends 
from the mountains with a foehn effect, licks up 
the winter moisture, and is associated with a 
sudden change from the cold of winter to the 
blazing heat of summer. This wind is often very 
injurious to growing crops, and the risks of the 
season are increased by the fact that the accom- 
panying rise of temperature hatches out locusts, 
which are often a plague. The frequent result may 
be gathered from the brief official statement that 
in 1 9 10, while about 48,000 bushels of broad beans 
were sown in Thessaly, the crop was only about 
21,000 bushels — that is, less than half the seed ! 

In marked contrast to these conditions are those 
which prevail round the Gulf of Volo, where the 
climate is modified by the proximity of the sea, 
the slope of the ground, ,and the protection which 
the mountains give from the cold north and east 
winds of winter. These effects are very marked 



170 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

on the western slopes of the Magnesia Peninsula, 
where a mild Mediterranean climate reigns, and 
the olive and the citrus fruits thrive as well as the 
vine; while as one ascends the slopes still higher, 
there comes a belt of dense forest in which the 
noble chestnut figures conspicuously. Even here, 
however, there are distinct local differences. The 
north-easten shore of the Gulf of Volo, with its slope 
to the sun, has a more favourable climate than the 
plain of Almyros, while the height limit of the chief 
Mediterranean plants is distinctly lower on the 
north-eastern slope of the Magnesia Peninsula, 
which is exposed to the winds of winter, than on 
the south-western one. On the other hand, from 
the very fact of this exposure, the north-eastern 
coast has a better rainfall. 

Thus we have a relatively extreme climate in the 
inner basins, which resemble steppes in their 
parched appearance during the summer months, 
and are singularly treeless. The slopes of the 
Magnesia Peninsula, and, to a somewhat less 
extent, those round the Gulf of Volo generally, 
have a milder climate, an often rich growth of 
trees, and are capable of producing much fruit 
of Mediterranean type. The third element in 
Thessaly, the hilly belts round the inner plains, to 
some extent share in the disadvantages of both the 
other regions. They cannot be ploughed, and so 
far resemble the mountain-slopes, but the summer 
drought makes them unsuitable for the growth of 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 171 

trees, and at this season of the year vegetation is 
represented by dry tufts of grass and asphodel, 
or low bushes. The chief purpose to which the 
upper belt can be put is that of serving as winter 
pasturage for sheep and goats, but the lower 
slopes, especially where springs occur, can be used 
for vines and tobacco. It will be seen from the 
above description that, contrary to the usual con- 
ditions in temperate lands, the mountain-slopes are 
on the whole better fitted for human occupation 
than either the plains or the hill country. The 
social conditions have increased the advantage of 
the slopes near the sea, and the total effect is 
shown in the denser population there than else- 
where in Thessaly. How far the disadvantages 
of the plains can be overcome by well-directed 
human effort still remains to be seen. Up till the 
present, however, Greece has not been able to do 
very much for lands which nevertheless appear 
suitable for cereal production of the large scale. 

To this general description of the conditions we 
may add a more detailed study of the various 
modes of life practised in the region, in their rela- 
tion to the topography and climate. Many of the 
following facts are taken from a paper by Mr. 
Leonidas Chalikiopoulos, but while he limits him- 
self to a study of Thessaly only, we shall apply his 
results to the peninsula generally. 

Dr. Chalikiopoulos recognizes three types of land 
utilization in Thessaly, each closely related to a 



172 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

particular land form. The fact that the hill 
country is green in winter enables it to be utilized 
by herdsmen, here typically Vlachs, who are com- 
pelled to migrate with their flocks to higher ground 
when the drought of summer approaches. Thus 
these hill pastures take the place in Thessaly of 
what in Scotland is known as " wintering," this 
being land which has to be left at this season at 
the disposal either of sheep or, in the Highlands, 
of deer, who are driven by the snow from the higher 
land. We have thus a partial and seasonal form 
of land utilization, which is entirely comparable 
to the use made by the Albanians of the swampy 
Adriatic coast of their land (p. 1 1 1) in winter. 

Such a use of land on the large scale is necessarily 
wasteful, and involves the existence of migratory 
peoples. It was formerly common in the Mediter- 
ranean region, and still exists outside the Balkan 
Peninsula in, e.g., Provence and North Spain. 
With it should be contrasted the elaborate and 
careful use of the pastures in many parts of the 
Alps. " Transhumance," as French geographers 
call such movements, always tends to diminish 
with closer settlement, partly because of the risk 
of collision between the guardians of the vast 
migrating flocks (cf. p. 126) and the sedentary 
agricultural peoples through whose lands these 
have to travel. Such collisions occur as a more or 
less regular spring phenomenon between the pas- 
toral Albanians and the Serb cultivators in the 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 173 

extreme north of Macedonia and in Novibazar, for 
shepherd easily becomes robber. 

The second type of land utilization is that 
practised by the dwellers in the plains, whose 
fundamental occupation is the ploughing of the 
deep fertile soil for the growing of grain. Ploughing 
is only possible with draught animals, and the 
sedentary cultivator is more helpless than the 
shepherd with his crook. The ploughing peasant 
is thus easily enslaved, and without his oxen 
becomes almost at once a pauper. 

Finally, on the mountain-slopes, as we have 
already seen, olive, vine, orange, and other trees 
can be grown. The forest above gives firewood, 
acorns for the pigs, chestnuts for the household, 
various minor woodland products, while the prox- 
imity of the sea gives opportunities for exchange 
as well as for escape in time of need. Here, then, 
a certain degree of comfort is possible, whatever 
the general social and political conditions. This, 
with its outlook over the sea and its possibilities, 
is the typically Greek mode of life, practised also, 
though to a less extent, on the Adriatic coast. 
The Slav, on the other hand, is the typical 
ploughing peasant as contrasted with the Greek 
gardener. As there is no definite Slav element 
in Thessaly, we have here a racial explanation for 
the scanty population of the plains, for the Greek 
does not seem to take kindly to the mode of life 
necessary here. 



174 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Of the Vlach herdsmen we need say but little, for 
they have been already considered in the preceding 
chapter. The}- often come to Thessaly from a con- 
siderable distance, usually from lands which till 
191 3 were Turkish. The pastures either belong to 
large landowners or to communes, and grazing 
rights are hired for the season by the migratory 
herdsmen. 

The ploughing peasant demands fuller considera- 
tion, for, as we have repeatedly emphasized, his 
problem is the outstanding one for the greater part 
of the peninsula. The landowning, cereal-producing 
peasant in Bulgaria and Serbia is content, and his 
contentment gives both countries their strength. 
Turkey in Macedonia till dispossessed in 1913, 
Austria-Hungary in Bosnia till to-day, have both 
failed to satisfy their peasants, and that is the 
really important part of the indictment against 
both Powers. Greece's success in Thessaly in 
dealing with agrarian problems has so far been 
moderate, and the last division of land in Macedonia 
gave her jurisdiction over fresh areas where the 
same problems present themselves. The question 
as to how far she can deal adequately with the 
ploughing peasant is one which should certainly 
be taken into account if any new adjustment comes 
to be made between her and Bulgaria in South 
Macedonia. 

In Serbia the majority of the holdings, which are 
owned by the peasants who work them, range 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 175 

from 10 to 30 acres. The estates or Tsiflikia of 
Thessaly average about 750 acres, while in the 
plain of Almyros there are estates which include 
about 5,000 acres of fertile arable land, and with 
pastures and meadows total 10,000 acres. One 
proprietor frequently owns several estates, which 
normally include arable land in the plain itself, 
and pastures on its margins. The landowners are 
almost always absentees, appearing only at the 
time of harvest. Originally they were Turks, but 
since 1897 tne Turks, as already stated, have been 
withdrawing. Their lands have been in part 
divided up among small proprietors, who have 
borrowed money at ruinous rates for the purchase. 
In part, however, the beys have been replaced b}^ 
Greek owners, who have taken little personal in- 
terest in the land. Thus in Thessaly, in contrast 
to the conditions in Serbia, the Government which 
succeeded the Turks has taken no steps (though 
measures have been proposed) to divide the land 
out among the cultivators. In consequence, as in 
Bosnia, though apparently to a less extent, the 
Turkish withdrawal has meant a change of master, 
but no great improvement in the condition of the 
actual cultivator. 

The lands are mostly worked by the peasants on 
the half-shares system. The peasant takes over 
such an amount of land as his oxen permit him 
to plough, is supplied with seed corn by his lord, 
pays half the expense of harvesting, and, after the 



i;6 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

seed has been set aside, is allowed half the yield. 
Another system is more usual in the Almyros plain, 
where the cultivator pays all expenses and gets 
two-thirds of the yield. A peasant without plough- 
ing animals can only hire himself out as a day 
labourer at a very small wage. During the 1897 
war most of the peasants fled, and the necessity for 
repurchasing draught animals in place of those 
destroyed burdened many of them with a load of 
debt. 

As one would expect under such a system, the 
methods of cultivation are slovenly in the extreme. 
The land is mostly worked on a two-field system, 
being alternately cropped and left fallow. The 
fallow lands are grazed by cattle, but otherwise 
manuring is scarcely practised. Too small a share 
of the profits from improved methods falls to the 
cultivator to make it worth while for him to in- 
crease his labour, and, with some exceptions, the 
landowners do not strive to develop their lands. 
The usual crops are wheat and barley, in the pro- 
portion of 3 to 1 , while tobacco is planted on the 
margin of the plains. Cattle are reared also, each 
estate having usually hill pastures, tobacco land, 
and cereal land. 

Somewhat more favourable are the conditions 
which reign among the peasant proprietors. These 
live mostly in villages near the margin of the plain, 
in localities where springs are abundant, and where 
the population was always somewhat denser than 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 177 

on the waterless plain itself. In such localities 
the population, always more prosperous, was less 
easily enslaved by the Turk. Where artificial 
watering is possible, a peasant family can live in 
comfort on 25 acres, the usual size of a small- 
holding in the plain. Holdings up to 75 acres are, 
however, found, while nearer the hills the size may 
increase to 125 acres. Only rarely is more than 
a part of the land used every year, but in some 
cases rotation with continuous cropping is prac- 
tised. Thus on watered land it is possible to get 
barley as a spring crop, maize in the summer, 
followed the next year by a leguminous crop, and 
then by maize again. But the peasant proprietors 
devote themselves especially to the cultivation of 
vine and tobacco on the slopes, with results seen in 
the increase in the export of tobacco. 

What is the economic result of these conditions ? 
The last figures available are those for 1910-n, 
and they show that for Thessaly generally the 
wheat yield is between four- and five-fold. In this 
country it is reckoned that it should be ten- to 
thirty-fold. It must be remembered, also, that our 
land is kept continuously cropped, while that in 
Thessaly usually only yields one crop in two years. 
Barley in Great Britain yields nine- to fifteen-fold ; 
in Thessaly its yield is not five-fold. More strik- 
ing, perhaps, is the fact that Thessaly, the granary 
of Greece, imports a considerable amount of cereals 
every year, chiefly from Bulgaria. No doubt these 



12 



I78 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

imports, which come into Volo, need not be re- 
garded as only for the use of the province, but it 
is at least striking that a cereal-producing region 
should export far less wheat and flour than she 
imports. 

The reasons for these poor results are no doubt 
multiple. The Greek does not take kindly to the 
arduous task of corn-growing, especially under the 
economic conditions which prevail in Thessaly. 
Further, as there is not in Greece the land-hunger 
which is so remarkable a social phenomenon in 
Slav countries, there is less likelihood of the 
Government interesting itself seriously in a diffi- 
cult agrarian problem. It is said that agriculture 
iu the region is steadily improving, but the im- 
provement is as yet considerably less marked than 
jn Bulgaria. 

There are many points of interest in regard to the 
third type of land utilization in Thessaly? that of 
the gardener-peasant, but these are for our purpose 
less important. This mode of life is essentially 
Greek, and does not therefore affect to an}' great 
extent the problems of the peninsula as a whole. 
The most interesting general point here is that, apart 
from the private ownership of the small areas where 
cultivation is possible, the villages have a con- 
siderable amount of communal land, on which 
the inhabitants may cut wood, make charcoal, and 
p sture" their goats at pleasure. 

To obviate misunderstanding, two notes may be 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 179 

added to the above description. In the first place 
we must not, of course, overestimate the influence 
of race in determining modes of life, more especially 
in a region where the races are so inextricably inter 
mixed as in the Balkan Peninsula. To say that the 
Greek tends to cultivate vine and olive because he 
is a Greek, and the Serb wheat and maize because 
he is a Slav, would be far too extreme a statement. 
It is obvious that a mode of life practised by a race 
in a particular set of environmental conditions is 
not generally so fixed in the psychology of the 
race that modification is impossible under a new 
set of conditions. The average Englishman, who 
from being an agriculturist has turned more and 
more in the last hundred years to industry and 
commerce, the emigrating Scot, who in Canada, in 
Australia, in the Argentine, engages in types of 
cultivation of which he has had no racial experi- 
ence, are proofs, if proofs are needed, of racial 
adaptability, and very many others could be given. 
But it is equally obvious that in a state such as 
Serbia or Bulgaria, where certain forms of agri- 
culture are practised by the vast majorit3 r , the 
social polity will necessarily be influenced, both 
consciously and subconsciously, by the needs of the 
cultivators, it being granted, of course, that the 
majorit}' are able to make their wishes felt, as they 
are in these cases. On the other hand, where, as 
in Greece, the possibilities of cereal-production are 
limited, and ploughing on the large scale can be 



i8o GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

carried on only in relatively few areas, the chance 
of the interests of the ploughing peasant receiving 
lull consideration must be less. The question, we 
must repeat, is not of Thessaly alone; that region 
is perhaps necessarily Greek. But it is another 
matter whether Greece was wise in insisting on her 
new boundary with Bulgaria including so much 
arable land in South Macedonia, lands in which 
the characteristic Greek mode of life is not possible, 
whose present occupants will not be easily recon- 
ciled to Greek rule, and which are scarcely likely 
to attract Greek settlers. 

In the second place, while we have emphasized 
above the disadvantages which result from the pre- 
vailing mode of land-ownership in Thessaly, it 
must not be hastily assumed that the mere division 
of the land among the peasants would solve the 
problem. A landowner who does nothing for his 
land save take half the crop from the cultivator 
is undesirable — of this there can be no doubt. It 
is possible, however, as some Greeks believe, that 
the status of agriculture could be more easily 
raised in Thessaly by far-seeing large proprietors 
than by smallholders struggling under a load of 
debt. The question is, no doubt, as difficult as 
that other, did English agriculture gain or lose 
more from the virtual disappearance of the yeo- 
man ? But our immediate point here is that 
as yet the Greek Government has neither raised 
the status of agriculture notably in Thessaly nor 



BALKAN PROBLEMS iSl 

satisfied the cultivator. Further, though over- 
production of typical Greek crops, such as the 
currant, occurs in other regions, this does not lead 
to immigration into Thessaly, though labour is 
deficient here, while other localities seem to be too 
densely peopled. If Greece has hitherto been un- 
successful with the problem on a small scale, is she 
wise to undertake the administration of lands 
where the same problem presents itself on a larger 
scale ? 

NOTE. 

There is a good description of Thessaly in Fisher's Greichen- 
land (in KirchhofPs Landerkunde der Europa). Philippson's 
Das Mittelmeergebiet discusses Mediterranean climatic problems 
very fully. The article by Chalikiopoulos to which reference 
is made will be found in the Geographische Zeitschrift, xi, 
1905 (" Wirtschaftsgeographie. Skizze Thessaliens "). Miller's 
Greek Life in Town and Cottntry contains some interesting notes 
on Thessaly, and the annual Diplomatic Reports on Greece 
should be consulted for statistical details. 



CHAPTER XI 

MODES OF LAND UTILIZATION {continued) 

2. Free and Bonded Peasant in the Western 

Belt. 

Conditions in Albania and Montenegro— Bosnia and Herzego- 
vina — What the Austrian administration has done — What 
it has failed to do — The bonded peasant and his Moslem 
overlord — Taxation and the cost of the administration — 
The primitive agricultural methods — Agrarian unrest and 
its causes. 

If we start from the conditions in Thessaly as a 
kind of mean, we find that elsewhere in the penin- 
sula the agricultural peasant is either much worse 
off or in varying degrees of betterment. In Mace- 
donia under the Turk his condition was about as 
bad as it could possibly be. Not only was he 
virtually a serf in relation to the Turkish land- 
owner, but in addition he was taxed for state pur- 
poses up to the limit of possibility, and this on 
behalf of an administration which took no heed of 
him or his desires. The widespread corruption 
and the farming of the taxes added illegal extor- 
tions to those sanctioned by law and custom. In 
such circumstances it is scarcely remarkable that 
agriculture should be at a very low ebb, and that 

182 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 183 

life generally should be carried on at a level which 
corresponds to that in the worst periods of the 
Dark Ages in other parts of Europe. 

So far as poverty is concerned, the North Alban- 
ians, at least, were in scarcely better case, and this 
though they escaped much of what the Macedonian 
had to suffer. The general insecurity, the absence 
of roads and tracks, the constant fighting and 
raiding, were incompatible with any systematic 
form of land utilization. We use the past tense 
because Albania has again become an unknown 
land. 

As already stated, many of the Albanians are 
purely pastoral. Others cultivate the land, maize, 
as so frequently in the peninsula (but contrast 
Thessaly), being the commonest plant. It grows 
well in the fertile plain near Scutari (the Zadrima), 
but this belt has to supply much of Montenegro, 
as well as the less productive parts of inner Albania. 
Chestnuts are stated to form a not unimportant 
part of the food of the tribes who find it difficult 
to obtain maize. In general we may say that the 
poverty is extreme in the interior, so that the 
Turkish yoke, if it seem to have pressed less heavily 
than in Macedonia, was none the less a curse. It 
is perhaps worth note that the phenomenon of 
temporary emigration of the males, which occurs 
so frequently in poor regions, is common here 
Young Albanians often leave their country during 
the winter, going to work in Greece or elsewhere as 



1S4 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

field labourers, and returning to their mountains in 
the spring. 

Montenegro, so far at least as the greater part 
of its surface is concerned, is so poor, so rocky, 
so elevated, and suffers from so cold a winter 
climate, that no great amount of agriculture is 
possible. The rearing of sheep and goats is the 
chief occupation, and before the recent frontier 
changes there were twice as many of these animals 
as of human beings in the kingdom. In the in- 
terior there are only small fertile areas, where 
maize, barley, oats, potatoes (somewhat rare in the 
peninsula), and buckwheat are grown. But to 
the south-west there is a fertile plain which slopes 
down to Lake Scutari, and here a much greater 
variety of plants can be cultivated . Among these 
are tobacco and the vine, while on the short coast- 
line the olive flourishes, orange and lemon grow, 
and a modified type of the Mediterranean mode of 
life is possible, as it is on the coast of Albania. 
Thus it is rather interesting to note that among 
Montenegro's exports, which are not, however, 
large in amount, appear, with the products of her 
pastoral industry and of her forests (tanner's 
sumach, wood, etc.), such Mediterranean produce 
as olive oil and wine, as well as tobacco. At the 
same time, like many Mediterranean areas, she 
imports grain. There are no large estates, and the 
land is mostly split up into small holdings worked 
by the owners. The kingdom has made consider- 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 185 

able progress of recent years, and the people are 
contented, and probably as prosperous as can be 
expected in their barren land. Incidentally, it may 
be noted that the fact that a considerable amount 
of grain enters the country from the Zadrima plain 
makes the desire of the Montenegrins to extend 
their boundaries to Scutari and beyond readily 
understood. 

We come next to a consideration of the condi- 
tions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Austrian 
occupation, followed in 1908 by the annexation, 
has led to certain very obvious improvements 
here, as compared with the Turkish period. Roads 
have been constructed, railways built, clean well- 
managed inns established, courteous officials in- 
stalled, and so forth. The result, from the point 
of view of a whole-hearted admirer, may be seen 
in Miller's Travels and Politics in the Near East 
(1898). On the basis of his journeys and observa- 
tions, this author not only supports the view that 
the occupied lands formed, at the time of his 
visits (1 894-1 898), a model state, but suggests 
that Macedonia should forthwith be handed over to 
Austria-Hungary, as the Power which has shown 
most capacity for dealing with Near Eastern ques- 
tions. On the other hand, according to a Slav 
view, " Austria was not in the least interested in 
the prosperity of the country [Bosnia-Herzegovina], 
and merely created an intolerable chaos by her 
political intrigue in a land that had already suffered 



186 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

beyond endurance. Her evidences of civilization 
exhibited before Europe were pure humbug, and 
the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina one of the 
most flagrant acts of injustice ever perpetrated on 
a nation." How can we reconcile the two stand- 
points ? 

The first point to realize is that, as already seen, 
the occupants of Bosnia are predominantly Serb, 
and thus Slav, by race, and the holding of her 
southern Slav peoples in subjection, and the 
economic crushing of Serbia, are an integral part 
of Austria's policy. Both because they are Slavs 
and because their sympathies are Serbian, the 
native population there, then, is suspect to the 
governing power. Further, the fact that three 
religions are represented among them gives the ad- 
ministration an admirable opportunity of practising 
the Turkish method of stirring up mutual hatreds 
among subject peoples, in order to facilitate the 
task of governing them. 

Second, while to the tourist the fact that the 
Austrian inns are clean may seem a point of great 
importance, the peasant, who does not frequent 
inns, and is, moreover, without any Western 
squeamishness in regard to fleas, is less easily 
roused to enthusiasm. When he finds that he is 
taxed for Austrian improvements, which are under- 
taken in the interests of the tourist or of the 
Teutonic immigrant, and at the same time has to 
bear a direct burden on the land as great as under 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 187 

the Turk, we can nardly wonder that he looks 
longingly towards his free brother across the border. 
There is, in point of fact, a considerable amount of 
evidence to suggest that the peasant cultivator is 
worse off under the Austrian than under the Turk, 
more enslaved than under his former master, while 
at the same time he is maddened by the favours 
bestowed on incoming peoples, for whose sake he 
is taxed, deprived of immemorial rights over 
pastures or forest-land, and into whose hands the 
more fertile tracts are passing. Of course, the 
Austrian might reply that the newcomers are 
cleaner, more civilized, more efficient, better 
farmers, and so forth, and thus more worthj T of the 
attention of a prudent administration. The imme- 
diate point is that the Bosnian does not see the 
matter in this light, and adds his voice, if in a 
somewhat low key, to the cry of the Southern Slavs 
against the dominant party in Austria. Let us 
try to appreciate his point of view by some con- 
sideration of the land question in the region. 

The first fact to make clear is that here, as in the 
peninsula generally, the conquering Turk appro- 
priated the land, which was granted to individual 
soldiers on a feudal system. In our treatment of 
Thessaly we have tried to show that in practice the 
hold of the alien owners was always greater in the 
case of arable land than in that of pasture, forest, 
or mountain-slope, for only the ploughing peasant 
can go on year after year producing, after his 



i8S GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

elemental needs are satisfied, a sufficient surplus 
to be worth appropriation by an overlord. Now, 
in those parts of the peninsula which had been 
conquered by the Slavs, the land when the Turks 
came was chiefly in the hands of large owners, 
Slav of race. Many of these were naturally un- 
willing to lose their predominant position, and the 
result was that, especially in Albania and Bosnia, 
many turned Moslem in order to keep their lands. 
Under Turkish rule the cultivators remained in 
occupation of the land, whether they changed 
masters or whether it was only the master's creed 
which was changed, but the}^ were compelled to 
pay one-third of the yield to the owner, and, in 
addition, one-tenth in taxation to the Sultan, as 
well as such extra amounts as could be squeezed 
out of them by the tax-farmer, whose ingenious 
devices were manifold. 

In Bosnia, under the Turks, the condition of the 
cultivator was not so bad as in Macedonia, and this 
for much the same reason as that which made the 
Albanian a privileged individual. The country was 
too near " Europe " for any crying scandals to bo 
allowed . But the effect of the system was obvious 
in the low level at which agriculture remained, and 
in the scanty yield . It is, however, of much interest 
to note that in the period immediately prior to the 
Austrian occupation the peasants, excited by the 
movement for the emancipation of the serfs in 
Russia, and stimulated by contact with the free 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 189 

Serbs and Montenegrins, succeeded in extorting 
from the Sultan certain reforms which, if not fully 
carried out in practice, yet had effect enough to 
cause the cultivators to look back upon the period 
between i860 and 1876 as the happiest in their 
history. From their point of view the change from 
Turkish rule to Austrian occupation, and, later, 
from occupation to annexation, was a calamity. 

The matter is so important that some details are 
necessary. The population of Bosnia-Herzego- 
vina in 1910 was under 2,000,000 (about 1,900,000), 
and of these more than 650,000 — that is, more 
than one-third of the total — were peasants (i.e., 
peasants and their families), cultivating land which 
was not their property. Of their lords nearly 
90 per cent, were Moslems, while the peasants 
themselves are predominantly Christians, and were 
further bound to their lords by conditions still 
semi-servile, for, in addition to handing over a third 
or half their yield, according to the special arrange- 
ment made, they were compelled to give certain 
personal services and dues, which could be made 
onerous at the will of the lord. The owners them- 
selves are divided into greater feudal lords or 
begs, and the smaller proprietors or agas. 

In addition to the bonded peasants, there were 
in 1 9 10 about 635,000 free peasants, half of whom 
were Moslems. 

The Austrian Government has, of course, taken 
over the tax which the peasants formerly paid to 



KjO GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

the Sultan, and has found means to make its 
" efficient " tax-collectors as great a curse as the 
tax-farmers of the Turkish regime. In the first 
place, the tax has now to be paid in money instead 
of in kind, and the crop is valued by commissions 
appointed for this purpose. Very generally, more- 
over, the third share which has to be delivered to 
the overlord is estimated on the basis of the govern- 
ment valuation for taxation purposes. The tax 
commissioners receive 4 per cent, of the sums 
which they levy, and it is thus to their interest to 
place the valuation as high as possible. Further, as 
the lord's share also depends generally upon their 
valuation, it is his interest also that the valuation 
should be high. Finally, since the Moslem land- 
owners form a powerful minority, used in the 
political machine as a counterpoise to balance the 
weight of the Christian peasants, with their longing 
for emancipation, it is the interest of the tribunals 
before whom disputed cases are brought to sup- 
port Moslem lord as against Christian peasant, it 
being understood that these tribunals are con- 
stituted by the Austrian authority. The result is 
said to be not infrequently that, after the peasant 
has sold a part of his crop to pay the government 
tax, and has supplied his lord, he has so little left 
that he must either sell his cattle, and so diminish 
his own producing power, or go out as a day 
labourer. Under such circumstances one can under- 
stand that his admiration of the efficient Austrian 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 191 

administration is somewhat less than that of the 
tourist drinking coffee in a well-managed Govern- 
ment hotel. 

Again, while the peasant feels severely the 
burden of the taxes of a modern administration in 
a country where he still lives under the feudal 
regime, he complains also that of the money so 
collected he gets an inadequate share in benefits. 
In 191 1 the sum devoted to the needs of the army 
and of the police was more than twice that set 
aside for education, while, even so, the schools are 
so arranged that they benefit the small minority 
of German and Magyar immigrants far more than 
the vast majority of Slav inhabitants. Such 
grievances weigh, of course, both on the free and 
unfree Slavs. The peasant has other complaints 
in addition, resulting especially from the increasing 
tendency for the large Moslem landowners to quit 
the land since the annexation. Without going 
into details, we may say generally that the aim of 
the Government has been to use this emigration as 
a lever to further depress the condition of the 
peasant, and to promote the immigration of Ger- 
mans or Magyars. The intention, tacit, or in some 
cases openly expressed, has been to encourage the 
emigration of the Slav, with a view to the resettle- 
ment of the land by the dominant races of Austria- 
Hungary, and as the old lords leave the country it 
is made difficult for their former serfs to remain 
upon the land, while the incoming of Germans or 



192 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Magyars is encouraged in every possible way. It 
is, at the same time, only fair to state that since 
the end of 191 1 Government Redemption loans 
have been granted with the object of enabling the 
bonded peasants to enfranchise their holdings, 
and advantage has been taken of these loans to 
the extent of liberating a total of 203,000 acres up 
to March, 191 3. 

The actual type of cultivation practised in 
Bosnia-Herzegovina differs in the three areas into 
which, as we saw in Chapter III., the region can be 
divided. On the coastal belt, as far inland as the 
zone of Mediterranean climate extends, and thus 
both in Dalmatia and Herzegovina, the usual 
crops, including olive, vine, with many warm tem- 
perate fruits, such as figs, pomegranates, oranges, 
and citrons, and so forth, all thrive, and in Herze- 
govina, especially in the Narenta valley, tobacco 
is an important crop. Wheat and maize are also 



grown . 



In the mountain-region cultivation is limited for 
the most part to the floors of the polyen, and 
chiefly to the lower of these, owing to the severe 
climate in those situated at greater heights. 
Usually the polyen at the higher levels are used 
for pasture, and all the cultivators have grazing 
animals in addition to their fields. The chief are 
sheep and goats, cattle are fewer, but many pigs are 
reared, largely, as in Serbia, on the beech-mast 
and acorns of the forest. Domestic animals have, 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 193 

however, been diminishing notably of recent years, 
especially as regards sheep and pigs. Maize is the 
most important cereal here, but wheat, barley, and 
oats are also grown, as well as some rye and various 
kinds of millets. Some vines, tobacco (in small 
amount), hemp, and flax are also cultivated, mostly 
on a small scale, and the appearance of the potato 
is interesting. 

The flysch slopes towards the Save resemble in 
character and in products the adjacent parts of 
Serbia, and the abundance of the characteristic 
Serbian plum-tree, with the related export of 
prunes and plum brandy, emphasizes the resem- 
blance, as does the production of grain here. In 
this connection it is interesting to observe that it 
is especially in the angle between the Save and the 
Drina — that is, close to the Serbian boundar}^ — 
where the natural resemblances are greatest, that 
the Austrian Government is taking most care to 
" plant " colonies of Germans, and to foster the 
interests of these by all possible means. 

Throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina generally 
the methods of agriculture are very primitive. 
The plough is stated to be closely similar to that of 
Roman times, and with it the soil is merely 
scratched. There is no harrow, its function being 
taken by branches dragged over the ground. 
Where the poverty is very great the peasants, in 
default of draught animals, themselves pull the 
plough. No manuring is practised. One, two, or 

13 



194 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

even sometimes three crops of maize are taken off 
a plot, and then the exhausted soil is left to 
rest for five or ten years, during which period it is 
allowed to be overgrown with brushwood — a very 
primitive method, recalling those of Negro Africa. 
The weeding of the cultivated fields is often carried 
on only with the hoe, and, a point of some interest, 
maize is not sown in rows, but is scattered, very 
often among other plants. Thus its long tresses 
and heavy cobs may be seen protruding from beds 
of potatoes, pumpkins, beans, or millet. This 
throwing in of a few handfuls of Indian corn to 
complete a plot is not infrequent in lands where 
hoe culture prevails — e.g., in parts of tropical 
Africa. Its presence in a region so near to lands 
producing vast quantities of cereals by modern 
methods is a fact of considerable interest. 

The habit of mingling crops together is, indeed, 
common in Bosnia, and was once widespread in 
the peninsula. Thus, wheat is often mixed with 
rye or barley, barley with rye, and so on. In 
addition to such intentional mixtures weeds are 
permitted to accumulate till they may form 10 per 
cent, of the total crop. The explanation usually 
offered of the mixed sowing is that the absence of 
threshing machinery makes it difficult to obtain 
pure seed. The grain is trodden by horses, win- 
nowed by being tossed in the wind, and no special 
attempt is made to get rid of weeds, or even to 
keep the seeds of the different plants separate. 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 195 

No doubt carelessness plays a considerable part in 
the mingling, but one wonders whether it may not 
also be to some extent a device on the part of the 
peasant to render the valuation of the crop more 
difficult, and so evade some of the load of taxation. 

While considerable parts of Bosnia and Herze- 
govina are barren, and there are often difficulties 
with the water-supply, especially in the karst 
regions, yet the polyen are very fertile, and there 
can be no doubt that improv3d methods would 
greatly increase the yield. The Slav's complaint 
is that the Austrian Government in the region has 
done nothing to help him, but much to hinder. 

The suggestion that the solution of the problems 
of Macedonia is that it should be taken over by 
Austria-Hungary has been so frequently made, 
either in this simple form, or as part of a larger 
suggestion that the western side of the peninsula 
should belong to Austria and the eastern to Russia, 
that the conditions in Bosnia are worth careful 
consideration. Matters here have been com- 
plicated, more and more of late years, bjr the in- 
trusion of the general political question of Austria's 
southern Slavs, and by the menace to Magyar and 
German dominance in the Dual Monarchy resulting 
from the increasing prosperity of free Serbia on its 
borders. But even if this southern Slav question 
could be settled in a satisfactory fashion, is it 
certain that any foreign rule is desirable in lands 
recently emancipated from the Turk ? We have 



196 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

seen that in Thessaly even a native Government 
has failed to deal boldly with the land question, 
because, as we have suggested, the question there 
affects too small a part of the total population to 
make a far-seeing and courageous solution a vital 
necessity for the nation at large. The Turkish 
feudal system always leaves behind a curse, and 
the necessary readjustments, if progress is to be 
made, demand tremendous effort on the part of the 
administration, an effort which should not be 
hampered by the political exigencies of a large 
empire if it is to be successful. Hitherto, as we 
shall show in the following chapter, only the in- 
dependent states outside the Mediterranean zone 
have had the moral force to face the question 
squarely, and to seek a solution which satisfies the 
cultivators. 

Two short quotations from Miller's book, whose 
author is an enthusiastic admirer of the Austrian 
authority in Bosnia-Herzegovina, may perhaps be 
regarded as putting clearly the Austrian point of 
view, which is very different from that of the Slav 
of Bosnia : The Austrian authorities therefore 
resolved to make the best they could of the existing 
law without risking one of those agrarian revolu- 
tions which redress an old wrong by committing 
a new one. . . . Possibly, as time goes on and the 
peasants become better educated, the old Turkish 
law may be altered; but that will not be just yet." 

In these quotations, more especially in the first, 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 197 

one recognizes the invariable attitude of the alien 
official; and as regards the second, the Bosnians 
assert that the administration is taking care to 
postpone the time when the peasant will be better 
educated to the Greek Kalends. With all that 
can be said against Serbian political life, and of the 
many mistakes that country has made, we have to 
remember that one of its first acts after it became 
a modern state was to free the land, and to under- 
take the education of the peasant after and not 
before this preliminary step. Both Bulgaria and 
Serbia are becoming more and more cereal-export- 
ing lands, and, in the modern world, this means 
that agriculture there is steadily improving. Bosnia- 
Herzegovina, on the other hand, is seething with 
agrarian unrest, whose causes we have tried to set 
forth here, and we have to remember that, as has 
been already explained, Austria's policy in the 
region is determined by political causes entirely 
outside of it. Thus the agrarian difficulties do not 
only affect the agricultural population, large though 
this is ; the other classes also are maddened by the 
thought that their country is being held for a pur- 
pose in whose fulfilment their national ideals count 

as nothing. 

NOTE. 

In addition to the books and papers already mentioned 
reference should be made to an interesting article by Gaston 
Gravier, " La Question Agraire en Bosnie-Herzegovine " 
{Questions Diplomatique s et Coloniales, December i, 191 1). 
The Diplomatic and Consular Reports for Bosnia-Herzegovina 
should also be consulted. 



CHAPTER XII 

MODES OF LAND UTILIZATION (continued) 

3. Modern Agriculture in Serbia and 

Bulgaria. 

General characters of Serbia — The forests — Production of 
cereals — Respective yields of maize and wheat — Serbia 
and Ireland, a comparison — The Serbian plum — Other 
products — Summary of occupations — Bulgaria, resem- 
blances and differences as compared to Serbia. 

As has been already suggested, Serbia and Bul- 
garia, in marked contrast to the other states of 
the peninsula, are predominantly cereal-producing. 
They produce grain not only for their own use, but 
increasingly for export, and this on land which is 
chiefly, and in Serbia almost exclusively, worked 
by the proprietors of small holdings. In both 
countries agriculture, in combination with pastoral 
industries, form so large a part of the occupations 
of the people that in giving an account to these 
two industries we are practically describing the 
activities of the two countries. 

We have already given a general account of 
Serbia, and the details which have been added 
since in the course of our survey may help to em- 
phasize the fact that structurally Serbia is more 

198 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 199 

1 normal " than either Macedonia or Bosnia. In- 
ternal basins and abnormal river valleys are not 
unknown, but they play a far less important part 
here than elsewhere, and, apart from the curious 
furrow of the Southern Morava and that other 
whos? course is marked by the Lower Ibar (cf. p. 79), 
the country may be said to consist of upland and 
hill sloping to the plain of the Save-Danube. This 
statement is, of course, only true of the Serbia 
prior to 191 3, but too short a period has elapsed 
since the last Balkan war to make it possible to 
say anything of value in regard to forms of land 
utilization in the new territories. 

Nowhere does the surface of the land rise to any 
great height, and though the chief plains lie near 
the northern river boundary, or else along the 
tributary valleys, yet cultivation is possible over 
a very wide area, the vine and tobacco growing well 
on many of the hill-slopes . Originally, like so much 
of the interior of the peninsula, the land was rich 
in forests, and in spite of much felling oak and 
beech still cover extensive tracts, and the area 
covered by forests, as already stated, is about 
30 per cent, of the whole surface. 

The forests permit of a considerable exportation 
of cask-staves, but are not systematically worked . 
For this there are a considerable number of 
reasons. In the first place, though coal occurs in 
Serbia, it is not mined on an extensive scale, and 
wood forms the natural fuel. Second, the greater 



200 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

part of the forests (about 43 per cent.) belong to 
communes and villages, not bodies which usually 
take the long views necessary for systematic silvi- 
culture. Again, the hunger for arable land is lead- 
ing to constant clearing, a process assisted by the 
frequent wars which have ravaged the whole 
peninsula. Generally we may say that scientific 
forestry is not very likely to flourish in a com- 
munity which consists predominantly of small 
proprietors, more especially one which has only 
recently emerged from a condition resembling that 
of the Middle Ages in other parts of Europe. 
Serbia is almost necessarily still in the forest- 
destroying stage of development, and when we 
realize that in our own country we are only now 
emerging into the age of forest-construction, we 
can realize that time must elapse before scientific 
forest^ can hope to make much progress among 
the Serbs. The gradual change from communism 
to individualism which has been going on in Serbia, 
and which has resulted in great division of the land, 
has also been unfavourable to the forests, for woods 
cannot be managed properly if they are divided up 
into small plots; and when the land of a clan is 
divided up, there must always be a tendency on the 
part of the individual proprietors to clear their 
share of the forest . 

The almost excessive division of the land may be 
realized when it is stated that the vast majority 
of the holdings are under 25 acres, while a very 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 201 

large number of owners possess less than 10 acres. 
This extreme division is in part due to the breaking 
up of the Zadrugas, or family clans, mentioned 
above, with the result that the land previously 
worked by the family is portioned out among the 
males. It has, however, also a topographic basis 
in the undulating nature of the country, which 
makes the existence of wide uniform plains im- 
possible. Thus we find that the largest estates 
occur especially in the north, where, in the vicinity 
of the great rivers, the surface is more level. An 
undulating surface, we may note, favours small 
peasant proprietors in that it renders a multi- 
plicit}^ of crops desirable, and further makes the 
extensive use of machinery almost impossible. 
Many of Serbia's national characters are associated 
with the nature of her hilly land, where each small 
proprietor may hope to raise almost all he needs on 
his little holding, and where specialization on a 
large scale is difficult. 

What are the chief products of the land ? In 
the first place, as already stated, among the culti- 
vated crops cereals predominate, maize standing 
first and wheat second. Less important are barley 
and oats, the latter grown in the upland regions, 
while rye is cultivated in some localities. Although 
maize predominates, both in the area sown and in 
the yield, yet in the list of exports wheat occupies, 
in most j^ears, a more important place than the 
other grain. This means, of course, that while 



202 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

maize is raised primarily for home use, only the 
surplus being exported, wheat is chiefly an export 
crop, for only in the towns is wheaten bread eaten to 
any extent. Further, an interesting point emerges 
in regard to the respective yields of the two. Maize 
is a cheaper bread grain than wheat, it is poorer 
in nitrogen, and should produce about twice as 
much to the acre. Now Serbia has increased her 
yield of both grains very considerably of recent 
years, but while that of wheat is now a fair average, 
that of maize, though increased, is still too low for 
good agriculture. This means apparently that 
those cultivators who are producing wheat are 
employing better methods than those which culti- 
vate maize only. In other words, developed agri- 
culture is necessary before wheat can be supplied 
to the world's market, but those peasants who pro- 
duce chiefly for their own needs are probably still 
practising slovenly farming, which brings down the 
national average. 

Before giving a few figures, we may point out 
that Serbia, no less than the rest of the peninsula, 
has that tradition of undeveloped agriculture which 
is always associated with Turkish rule. She has 
been an autonomous state (nominally at least) only 
since 1815, and it was not until 1833 that the 
feudal system as perpetuated by the Turks was 
shaken off, and the cultivators became the pro- 
prietors. For long agricultural progress was slow, 
a fact which was commonly ascribed to the in- 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 203 

capacity and laziness of the Serbs. Most of those 
" primitive " features which we described in the case 
of Bosnia were present in freed Serbia, and some 
of them doubtless survive to this day in outlying 
parts. Even so late as 1893 Fischer gives a 
gloomy picture of Serbian agriculture, and suggests 
that an increase in the size of the estates would be 
an advantage. We quote the following sentences 
from his indictment of the peasant, and would 
point out that the book in which the words occur 
(Landerkunde von Europa) is a standard work of 
reference, so that Fischer's peasant has passed into 
geography book and encyclopaedia as the type of 
the lazy, incompetent Serb, if not also of the Slav in 
general. One should add that, though the volume 
is dated 1893, tne manuscript was completed three 
full years before, and as the peninsula is not a 
region where Government reports are up to date, 
we may presume that the material upon which the 
description was based dates back at least some 
years earlier. Thus the description may be re- 
garded as referring to the Serbia of the early 
eighties . 

Fischer says: " At the present time land cultiva- 
tion stands at a very low level, and is scarcely more 
than land robbery. Only about one-seventh of 
the surface is cultivated. All efforts of the ad- 
ministration to improve agriculture by the estab- 
lishment of Agricultural Colleges and Model Farms, 
and by the introduction of improved apparatus, 



204 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

have remained fruitless; averse to all progress, 
distrustful of the unknown, with very few wants, 
deprived also of all impulse to acquire possessions 
by the still existing family and clan communism 
(Zadrugas), the Serbian peasant, after all these 
efforts, goes his accustomed way. After them, as 
before, he gets the gipsy to make the primitive 
plough, which demands a huge expenditure of time 
and strength on the part of man and beast, and, 
nevertheless, does no more than scratch the surface. 
Afterwards, as before, is the corn threshed by being 
trodden by horses, or by means of flails, and win- 
nowed by the wind. In consequence, the yield of 
the fields is small, the crop of little value. The 
absence of large estates is perhaps rather a disad- 
vantage than otherwise. . . . The use of manure is 
unknown, the fertile land is either cropped until it 
is exhausted or else left fallow after every crop, for 
there is land enough in the country. Further, the 
not particularly industrious peasant is not spurred 
to extend cultivation by getting high prices for his 
produce, for the absence of carriage roads and the 
high railway tariff raise the cost of transport so 
much that it scarcely pays to grow more than 
can be used at home. In addition, Serbia is sur- 
rounded by agricultural lands. Further, in this 
thinly peopled land labour is deficient, and there 
is not sufficient intelligence to replace the lack by 
machinery. One has to add that a third of the year 
is given up to holiday-making !" 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 205 

Some part of the force of this indictment is 
perhaps lost since we ceased to be as sure as men 
were twenty-five years ago that over-production 
is invariably a good, but even so Serbia has made 
notable advances since these sentences were written. 
This country of idle peasants, spending four months 
of the twelve in singing and dancing and church 
festivals, sent out from their country in 191 1 over 
four and a half million pounds' worth of produce, 
almost wholly agricultural. She scratched her soil 
to such effect as to export nearly two million pounds ' 
worth of cereals, and had nearly 1,000,000 acres 
laid down to wheat, and nearly 1,500,000 acres to 
maize. Fischer's one-seventh under cultivation 
had increased by 1904 by more than double, for 
then nearly 37 per cent, of the total was under 
cultivation. Later figures are not available, but 
there is no doubt that there has been a considerable 
increase since. 

More striking both as regards the progress which 
has been made, and that which remains still to 
accomplish, is the evidence derived from yields per 
acre. In 1900 Serbia's wheat-lands yielded the 
low average of 2"j cwt. per acre. By 191 1 she 
had raised this to 7 6 cwt. per acre. This is still 
low when compared with the English yield (16*6 
cwt. per acre), but then the conditions in England 
are entirely exceptional. Serbia's yield is prac- 
tically the same as that of the United States, which 
has certainly all possible advantages as regards 



206 



GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 



machinery, and it is very much higher than that 
of the Argentine (5 cwt. per acre). Maize shows 
less satisfactory conditions. Theoretically its yield 
should be at least double that of wheat. But in 
1900 the maize-fields produced only 4 cwt.; it has 
since risen to between 9 and 10 cwt., while that of 
barley remains low. 

It is interesting to compare these conditions with 
those in Bulgaria. Bulgaria has an extraordinarily 
high wheat yield; in 1911 it was nearly 14 cwt. 
per acre, which speaks to very good farming. Her 
barley yield was also very good, about 14 cwt. 
as compared with about 20 cwt. in England; but 
the maize-fields produced only a yield about equal 
to that in Serbia. Again we have to repeat that 
maize is the food of the actual cultivator, and the 
figures suggest that the process of spreading 
modern ideas on farming is not completed in either 
country; in both there must still be many farmers 
who are producing maize for their own use by more 
or less slipshod methods. 

Perhaps we may make the present-day conditions 
in Serbia clearer by comparing them with those 
which prevail in Ireland.* Serbia's area in 191 1 
was o*57 that of Ireland (18,650 square miles as 
against 32,360 square miles), but her population was 
denser (as o*66 is to 1). Now, Ireland is partly 

* Note that the area and population of Serbia, as shown in 
Fig. 9, are those of the Serbia after the 191 3 settlement. The 
statements in the text refer to the Serbia before this date. 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 207 

agricultural and pastoral and partly industrial, 
but Serbia's population is almost wholly engaged 
on the land. Thus it is abundantly clear that the 
land is supporting far more people than it does in 
Ireland. The actual amount of land under culti- 
vation, it may be noted, is only slightly in excess 
in Ireland, but Serbia had more than twice as much 
ground under cereals. In Ireland half the total 
arable land is laid down to hay crops, so that the 
amount of land producing cereals and green crops 
(potatoes, swedes, turnips, etc.) is less than that 
devoted to cereals alone in Serbia. The number of 
sheep in the two countries was, in 191 1, approxi- 
mately the same, those in Ireland being slightly in 
excess. In spite of her much smaller area, Serbia 
had a number of pigs which in proportion to those 
of Ireland were in the ratio of 0*65 to 1 . Her 
cattle were far fewer, under 1,000,000, as compared 
with nearly 5 ,000,000 in Ireland . Further, while, as 
we all know, Ireland has an important dairy trade, 
the making of cheese and butter is not highly 
developed in Serbia, partly because the peasants 
have not yet acquired the wasteful modern habit of 
putting down large stretches of arable land to 
fodder crops. To them, as to most people to whom 
farming has not become a modern industry, the 
mission of fertile land seems to be to produce food 
or other useful products for man, the natural 
pastures or the woods (in the case of pigs) should 
produce at least almost enough food for the animals. 



208 



GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 



Thus, Serbia's pastoral industry yields chiefly live 
animals and meat, not dairy produce. She rears a 
comparatively small number of horses, having about 
one-quarter of the number found in Ireland, but 
has more than twice as many goats. 

Next to cereals and livestock, Serbia's most im- 
portant product is fruit, especially the plums of 
the north, which are exported largely dried (prunes), 
and are also used to make preserves and brandy. 
The plums are chiefly grown in hilly regions, and 
are greatly relished by the peonle in the fresh 
condition. They are now exported to some extent 
fresh as well as dried. Other fruit-trees are also 
cultivated, but none attains the importance of the 
plum. 

The slopes at the sides of the valleys are well 
adapted for the vine, but phylloxera has caused 
such ravages that Serbia cannot now supply her 
own needs, and imports some wine. The two 
valleys of the Morava and the Timok are specially 
notable for their vineyards, and it is rather inter- 
esting to notice that two towns near their mouths, 
Negotin near the Danube, a suggested terminus for 
the Danube-Adriatic railway, and Semendria on the 
same river, are wine-making towns whose products 
have more than a local reputation. The fact that 
the grapes in these cases are conveyed northwards 
in accordance with the slope of the land is inter- 
esting. With the exception of her livestock and 
some other products, Serbia's exports have hitherto 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 209 

shown a general tendency to drain in this fashion 
northwards towards the Hungarian plain, this 
being specially true of her fruit. It is because 
Austria-Hungary does not take the produce of her 
pastoral industry that the question of Serbia's 
access to the sea is so clamant. Even as regards 
her cereals, however, Serbia is faced with the 
difficulty that Hungary, though not Austria, pro- 
duces an excess of cereals. Had she free access to 
the sea, therefore, there is no doubt that there 
would be an increasing tendency for her surplus 
cereals also to travel south, or south-east or south 
west, against the slope of her land. The point is 
of some importance, for it is sometimes said by 
Austrian geographers that as the slope of her land 
is towards the Hungarian plain, Serbia should be a 
part of the Dual Monarchy. But, as we have tried 
to show, it is one of the structural peculiarities of 
the Balkan Peninsula that lines of communication 
which are abnormal elsewhere are natural and 
normal here. Serbia is cut off from industrial 
Europe by the agricultural plains of the centre, 
which yield generally the same kind of produce 
that she does; her desthry, therefore, seems to lead 
her to find a way of access to the south or south- 
west, rather than to beat herself ineffectively 
against customs bars to the north. 

Of her remaining products we need say little. 
Considerable efforts have been made by the ad- 
ministration to promote the growth of sugar-beet, 



210 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

but the area covered by the plant is meantime not 
large. The sugar industry is, of course, one which 
requires a considerable amount of capital for its 
development, and capital is not readily available 
in this agricultural country. Tobacco is grown for 
home use, and flax and hemp support small local 
industries. Silkworm-rearing, an occupation for 
which a country of small-holders is well fitted 
(cf. Japan), is carried on, but not on a very large 
scale. Generally we may say that while the 
country is climatically suitable for a considerable 
number of plants, the production of cereals, 
fruit-growing (chiefly plums), and the rearing of 
stock constitute the main occupations of the 
people. 

Industries are but little developed, and depend 
almost entirely upon the working up of locally 
produced raw material. The most interesting is 
the production of carpets at Pirot, a town near the 
Bulgarian boundary, and thus in an upland region. 
The carpets are made of home-grown wool, are 
woven by the women on hand-looms, and are 
coloured b}^ local dyes, said to be bright and per- 
manent. Such minor industries as flour-making, 
brewing, meat-packing, etc., all exist, but there is 
practically no production on a modern scale, and 
most manufactured goods are imported. 

Serbia, like other parts of the peninsula, is rich 
in minerals, but the difficulty of finding capital 
militates against the working of these. Copper, 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 21 1 

coal, and some gold are worked, mostly with foreign 
capital. 

To sum up, Serbia is an agricultural and pastoral 
country, whose people are predominantly, though 
to a decreasing extent {yy per cent, in 1900, 72 per 
cent, in 19 10) engaged on the land. Owing to the 
marked subdivision of the land, there is no pauper- 
ism, though there is little wealth. All the attrib- 
utes of a democratic agricultural community ap- 
pear. Thus the birth-rate is high (nearly twice 
that of Ireland), early marriages of both sexes are 
the rule, and a proleteriat, either urban or rural, 
scarcely exists. There are more men than women, 
and though it is generally stated that the position 
of women is low, yet on the other hand the fact 
that the women carry on many home industries, 
and do much of the lighter work of the farms, 
gives them an actual power in exchange for which 
they may well dispense with those forms which 
elsewhere mark a more real subjection. The 
Montenegrin proverbs, " A house is not based on 
the ground, but upon a woman," " There is no 
home without a housewife," show that the signifi- 
cance of the ceremonial admissions of inferiority 
which the housemother makes to the males of the 
household may easily be overestimated. There is 
little illegitimacy. 

Since her liberation from Turkish rule Serbia has 
progressed steadily, and could she only obtain 
permanent peace and that unimpeded outlet for 



212 



GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 



her products which is the first requisite of economic 
progress, the prospects for the future seem bright. 

There is so much general resemblance between 
Serbia and Bulgaria in regard to the use which is 
made of the land that we may dismiss the latter 
country in relatively few words. 

In Bulgaria, as in Serbia, the population is pre- 
dominantly agricultural, the proportion being about 
the same in both cases (about 72 per cent.). The 
density of population is, however, somewhat less 
in Bulgaria, where it is 129 per square mile as 
against 150 per square mile in Serbia. We may 
note for comparison that in Denmark, a purely 
pastoral country, but one where the dairying 
industry is carried to a high degree of efficiency, 
the somewhat barren land supports in comfort a 
population of 178 per square mile. 

Bulgaria freed herself from the Turk more 
recently than did Serbia, and we have already 
noticed that she retains a certain Moslem popula- 
tion. With this may be associated the other fact 
that peasant ownership is not so universal as in 
Serbia. Only some 68 per cent, of the proprietors 
cultivate their own land, the remainder hire out 
their properties. As in Serbia, and to an even 
greater degree, the land is much divided up. There 
are no very large estates, and a very considerable 
number of proprietors own only about one acre 
of land. On the other hand, the variety of crops 
is somewhat greater than in Serbia, and some of the 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 21 3 

crops, like the roses grown for attar, are the result 
of operations of the nature of gardening rather than 
of farming in the strict sense. 

We have already spoken of the climate of Bul- 
garia and of the risk of summer drought . Associated 
with this we have great fluctuation in the annual 
value of the harvest, which varies enormously from 
year to year. This, of course, brings considerable 
risk of disaster to a purely agricultural people, but 
the peasants are frugal and thrifty in the extreme. 

Certain minor differences from Serbia are ob- 
servable. As we have already stated, wheat, in 
most years, predominates over maize. Pigs are 
much less important than in Serbia, and though 
a considerable number of cattle are reared, live- 
stock and meat figure much less prominently in 
the exports. This is partly because the admini- 
stration is making great efforts to develop a dairy- 
ing industry, and there is already a considerable 
export of cheese. Further, as cultivation spreads 
and the old pastures are encroached upon, cattle- 
rearing can be carried on only if forage crops are 
grown. Here, again, the administration is making 
great efforts to promote the cultivation of such 
plants as lucerne. Since Bulgaria contains a con- 
siderable amount of mountain-land, as contrasted 
with the uplands of Serbia, we find the sheep im- 
portant . There is a considerable export of mutton , 
chiefly to Turkey. Poultry are also reared, and 
eggs are exported . 



214 BALKAN PROBLEMS 

Bulgaria has practically a monopoly of attar of 
roses, of which a considerable amount is exported. 
In contrast to Serbia, which grows tobacco for her 
own use almost exclusively, Bulgaria exports 
tobacco, as well as a considerable amount of silk. 
There is a considerable number of minor crops, 
such as rice, oil-seeds, various kinds of fruit, and 
so forth. 

There are some minor industries, notably the 
manufacture of woollen cloth, which is exported 
to some extent. The home supply of wool does 
not suffice for this, and an extra supply is im- 
ported, chiefly from Turkey (i.e., the Turkey before 
191 3). The country seems to be rich in minerals, 
including coal, but these are not yet worked to any 
extent, chiefl}* on account of the want of capital, 
always a difficulty in a state which subsists by 
carrying on agriculture on small holdings. As in 
the peninsula generally, the uncertain political 
situation has made it difficult to obtain foreign 
capital, though a certain number of mineral con- 
cessions have been granted. 

NOTE. 

Servia by the Servians, compiled and edited by Alfred Stead, 
London, 1909, and Bulgaria of To-Day, published by the 
Bulgarian Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture, London, 
1907, contain a number of interesting details in regard to the 
two countries. Later statistics will be found in the Diplo- 
matic and Consular Reports, and in the annual issues of the 
Statesman's Year-Book. 



CHAPTER XIII 

TERRITORIAL CHANGES AFTER THE I912-I913 

BALKAN WARS 

Roumania and Bulgaria, the new frontier — Roumania's gain 
and Bulgaria's loss — The Bulgaro-Turkish frontier — 
Greece and Bulgaria — Serbia's gains — Unsatisfactory 
nature of the settlement. 

We have spoken so much in the foregoing chapters 
of the frontiers which resulted from the 19 12-13 
Balkan wars that it may be well for the sake of 
clearness to sum up here the changes which those 
wars produced. Essentially, of course, their result 
was to exclude Turkey from Europe save for Con- 
stantinople and a comparatively small area behind 
it, and to create the short-lived state of Albania; 
but it was the division of the spoil among the 
independent states which raised the great diffi- 
culties . 

The immediate cause of the first war was the 
Young Turk revolution and its consequences. 
Among these consequences were the annexation 
by Austria-Hungary of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the 
shaking-off by Bulgaria of the last remnant of 
Turkish supremacy, and the troubles in Albania 
and Macedonia which arose when the new Turkish 
administration abandoned the safe maxim of point 

215 



2l6 BALKAN PROBLEMS 

de zele which had characterized its predecessors. 
The first symptom of changed conditions was the 
formation of a Balkan alliance, a combination 
which had previously been regarded as impossible. 
As already seen, a secret treaty was arranged 
between Bulgaria and Serbia in reference to the 
distribution of the lands which they hoped to take 
from the Turk in Macedonia. The territorial basis 
of the treaty is shown in Fig. 1 1 ; its essence was 
that while Old Serbia and the northern part of 
Macedonia generally were to be regarded as Serbian 
in character, Serbia was not to contest Bulgaria's 
claims to the southern part of Macedonia. A dis- 
puted area, however, remained between the two 
zones, whose destination was to be settled after 
the war. Greece apparently did not enter into the 
treaty, and her share of the spoil was left unsettled. 
As is well-known, when the war broke out 
Turkey's army, which had hitherto enjoyed a high 
reputation, failed to act up to this reputation, and 
the allied states prospered far beyond their most 
sanguine expectations. Turkey not only lost 
Albania, Novibazar, Macedonia, but also a very 
large part of Thrace, and at the end of the first 
campaign Bulgaria anticipated that she would be 
able to draw her new frontier direct from Midia 
on the Black Sea to Enos* on the ^Egean, thus 
including in her lands the whole of the lower 

* Enos lies at the mouth of the Maritza, but on its eastern 
bank. See the coloured map. 







Fig. ii. — Map to illustrate the Secret Treaty between 
Serbia and Bulgaria in 191 2. 

The lands north and west of the shaded area, including North 
■ Albania, were to go to Serbia ; those south and east to Bulgaria ; 
^ the shaded area was to be the subject of negotiation later. 



2l8 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

course of the Maritza with the town of Adrianople , 
and also that of Lule Burgas on the Ergene. But, 
and here arose the great difficulty, Serbia hoped 
to obtain from the war that free access to the 
Adriatic to which, as we have shown, she considers 
herself entitled on geographical grounds. Now, the 
powers of the Triple Alliance were determined 
that she should not have this, and to prevent the 
possibility independent Albania was created, Serbia 
being given the somewhat empty permission to 
construct a railway through Albanian territory. 

We have already explained that this necessarily 
led to troubles between Serbia and Bulgaria. If 
the original treaty was carried out, now that 
Greece was in possession of the North ^Egean coast 
and Serbia was blocked on her way to the Adriatic, 
it would mean that two protectionist powers would 
intervene between Serbia and the sea to the south, 
and this although Bulgaria had gained much terri- 
tory in Thrace. The quarrel between the powers 
was fomented, there is little doubt, by German and 
Austrian agents ; the result in any case was that 
Bulgaria staked her all on a throw of the dice — and 
lost. Her behaviour during the short summer 
campaign of 191 3 has been the subject of very 
severe strictures ; but we have been so satiated 
with war horrors since, that that brief campaign 
seems old history. In any case military matters 
are not our concern here. The result of her defeat 
at the hands of her former allies was that Bulgaria 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 219 

was almost excluded from Macedonia, as we see 
from the new frontier-line shown on Fig. 1 1, which 
gives Serbia not only the disputed area, but a con- 
siderable tract to the south and east of it. She lost 
also the lower part of the Struma valley, her easiest 
western outlet to the Mgean, and with it the port 
of Kavala and the town of Seres. Meantime the 
Turk took advantage of the new campaign to win 
back Adrianople and a part of the Maritza valley, 
and so shift the original Enos-Midia line far to the 
north-west. Finally, unkindest cut of all, Rou- 
mania " rectified ' her frontier by nipping off a 
considerable slice of Bulgarian territory to the 
north-east. Bulgaria, sullen and defeated, was left 
with an insignificant fraction of what she had 
hoped to gain, and with a grievance against every 
one of the surrounding states — not a happy position 
for a country which had hitherto enjoyed in the 
Press of the West the reputation of being the most 
efficient of the Balkan States. 

At the date of writing the most important 
changes which have occurred subsequently have 
been the departure and subsequent abdication of 
the ruler of independent Albania, and the occupa- 
tion by the Greeks in 1914 of a considerable tract 
of land in Southern Albania, land which was in- 
cluded by the 191 3 treaty in the independent 
state. The portion occupied is the nothern part 
of Epirus, a region which has thus now become 
wholly Greek. 



220 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

In order to appreciate the importance of what 
Bulgaria lost by her 191 3 campaign, we must 
consider in a little detail her different frontiers, 
beginning with the Roumanian one in the north- 
east. 

We have already dwelt upon the fact that the 
Danube, after a west-to-east course which brings 
it to the town of Silistria, is blocked by the rising 
ground of the Dobrudja, and turns north, running 
parallel with the coast for a time before it finally 
reaches the Black Sea. Up to the town of Silistria 
the river formed till 191 3 the Roumanian-Bul- 
garian frontier, and this frontier ran from that 
town in a south-easterly direction to the sea. 
The old frontier is clearly shown on Fig. 3 ; 
Silistria lies at the point where it quits the Danube 
(see also the coloured map). The result was 
to include in Bulgaria a tract of land which had 
much the same general characters as the Dobrudja, 
and was regarded by the inhabitants as forming 
part of it. Thus trees in both cases are non- 
existent, springs are few, running water almost 
absent, and the chalk rocks are covered by so thin 
a layer of earth that in summer the region becomes 
burnt-up and steppelike; it is, indeed, a true 
steppe in character. The region has a considerable 
Moslem population, and apart from the town of 
Silistria itself, with only 12,000 inhabitants, is not, 
one would suppose, of very great value either to 
Bulgaria or to Roumania. But here, as so often, 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 221 

strategic reasons and the diplomatic presumption 
that a state of war is the natural one between 
neighbours make an intrinsically unimportant 
region a burning political question. Roumania's 
chief port is the town of Constanza, which is 
connected by rail (Fig. 7) with Bukarest, the 
capital. This railway crosses the Danube at 
Chernavoda by a great bridge, the only bridge 
between Belgrade and this point. In other words, 
only at this point can the Danube be crossed in 
Roumania without break of bulk, and only by this 
bridge has her capital direct communication with 
the coast. 

At the time of the Treaty of Berlin Roumania 
protested against Silistria being given to Bulgaria 
on the ground that the proposed frontier line con- 
stituted a menace to her lines of communication. 
To this the reply was made that as the Bulgaria 
of the Treaty was not a military state, the sug- 
gested danger was non-existent. In the 191 2 
campaign, however, Bulgaria showed very defi- 
nitely that she was a military state, and this, 
according to Roumania, rendered a rectification 
of frontier necessary. She laid stress especially 
upon the fact that the existing frontier brought 
Bulgarian territory at one point within under 
twenty-two miles of her most important railway. 
Further, by insisting that the new frontier should 
start from near Turtukai on the Danube instead of 
from Silistria, and run south-east, Roumania gained 



222 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

and Bulgaria lost two ports on the Black Sea, 
those of Kavarna and Baltchik. 

But it is the great disadvantage of all frontiers 
based upon supposed strategic necessity that while 
one morsel of territory is appropriated to safe- 
guard a present possession, immediately the new 
frontier is drawn it is perceived that a little more is 
desirable to protect this, and so the argument can 
be continued until it is obvious that there is no 
safety without swallowing up the whole of one's 
adversary's land. In this particular case a rail- 
way runs direct from Bukarest to the town of 
Giurgevo on the Danube, opposite which, but 
not connected by a bridge, stands the important 
Bulgarian town of Rushtchuk. To be really 
safe against any possible nefarious designs on the 
part of Bulgaria it would be necessary for Rou- 
mania, as her statesmen have pointed out, to ap- 
propriate the " quadrilateral," Rushtchuk, Shumla 
(Choumla on map), Varna, Silistria. Varna is 
the chief Bulgarian seaport and Rushtchuk her 
most important river port, and the two the largest 
towns in Bulgaria after Sofia and Philippopolis. 
This larger claim Roumania has not pressed in the 
meantime, but she advanced its desirability, from 
her point of view, as a reason why Bulgaria should 
grant the lesser demand. The lesser gain she 
obtained as the result of Bulgaria's second and 
disastrous campaign, and the consequence is that 
the Roumanian frontier now comes perilously close 



BALKANQPROBLEMS 223 

to Bulgaria's chief port, and this though she has 
not, as we shall see, acquired a satisfactory JEgean 
outlet. These facts help us to understand why, 
in 1914-15, Roumania should have felt hesitation 
in undertaking great military schemes in the north 
without some previous arrangement with Bulgaria. 
Let us turn next to Bulgaria's new southern 
frontiers. Two rivers, we have already seen, afford 
access from her inner plains to the southern sea. 
The more important of these is the Maritza, on 
whose banks stands Adrianople. South of 
Adrianople the Orient Railway, taking advantage 
of a curious little tributary valley, leaves the 
Maritza, and by means of this tributary finds its 
way into the Ergene valley, which it ascends for 
a considerable distance. The Enos-Midia line cuts 
the railway practically at the point where it quits 
the Ergene valley, and would have given to Bul- 
garia the whole of the Maritza from its source to the 
sea, the greater part of the course of the Ergene, 
and also the branch line which connects the 
Adrianople-Constantinople route to Dedeagatch, 
the port which lies to the west of the mouth of 
the Maritza. The frontier which Turkey finally ob- 
tained gave to her the whole course of the Ergene 
and a part of the Lower Maritza valley, with the 
town of Adrianople. The result was to push a 
section of Turkish territory over the railway line 
(Fig. 7), so that to reach her ^Egean port Bul- 
garian goods have to enter and then to leave 



224 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Turkish territory — and this with her best Black 
Sea port threatened by Roumania. 

The second important river valley which affords 
a (relatively) easy passage from Bulgaria's older 
territories to the JEgean is the Struma, from whose 
headwaters, as we have seen, there is no great 
difficulty in reaching Sofia, the capital. The 
Struma valley opens at its lower end into the 
fertile basin of Seres, famous for its tobacco-fields, 
whose best outlet is Kavala, for the Bay of 
Rendina or Orfani, into which the river opens, is 
harbourless. But the Greek frontier has been so 
drawn as to exclude Bulgaria from practically the 
whole basin of Seres, from the lower Struma valley, 
the port of Kavala, as well as from both shores of 
the Bay of Rendina. On the east her sea-front is 
constricted between Roumanian and Turkish terri- 
tory; on the south she is similarly, but to an even 
greater extent, constricted by the frontiers of 
Turkey and Greece. Thus, if she has no cause to 
love Roumania, she has less to love Greece. 

As her dissatisfaction with the results of the 
last campaign has had a very considerable effect 
upon Near Eastern politics during the winter of 
1 91 4- 1 5, and since the territorial changes brought 
about by that last campaign are somewhat com- 
plicated, it may be well to elaborate a little her 
grievances in the south. 

In the first place, as we have already explained, 
her fertile inner basins and plains tend to drain 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 225 

southwards rather than to the Black Sea, and this 
whether we take " drain " in its literal sense or in the 
metaphorical one of meaning the natural trend of 
her products. But the basins and plains of Bul- 
garia south of the Balkans are shut off from the 
iEgean by the Rhodope upland in the limited sense. 
Two river valleys, one at each end of this lofty 
upland, afford the only feasible outlets to the sea. 
Of these the one, the Maritza valley, is easy but 
somewhat circuitous; the other, the Struma, is 
direct, but has steep gradients. Now, though 
Bulgaria has been left in the possession of the 
western bank of the Lower Maritza, her road south, 
by rail as well as river, is blocked by the fact that 
the Turk sits astride the valley both above and 
below Adrianople. In the case of the Struma 
Bulgaria owns the upper and middle course, but 
Greece holds the mouth and lowermost part of the 
valley, and cuts off Bulgaria's new territories, as 
well as her old, from their natural outlet here. 

This, then, is Bulgaria's first grievance, that 
while part of her object in entering upon war with 
Turkey was to obtain outlets to the ^Egean, and 
while she has in point of fact gained a part of the 
north coast of that sea, her portion has been so 
arranged as to be of relatively little use to her. 

Her second object was to obtain new territory, 
especially in Macedonia, where dwell many repre- 
sentatives of her race. With territory here she 
undoubtedly wanted the great outlet of Salonika. 

15 



226 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Her share of Macedonia is minimal, and she has 
lost Salonika, has lost also to Serbia Macedonian 
lands which she reckoned as her own by right of 
race and influence, as well as by the secret treaty. 
Whatever treachery and cruelt}^ she displayed in 
the second campaign — and there seems no doubt 
that there was both — Greece and Serbia would 
have perhaps been wiser to have been more generous 
in their hour of triumph; a sullen, aggrieved neigh- 
bour is always an undesirable one. 

At the same time we have to admit that while 
Serbia's gains in territory and population were 
nominally great, yet in that she failed to obtain a 
genuine outlet either to the Adriatic or to the 
JEgean, and in that her new lands are peopled not 
wholly, perhaps not even largely, by Serbs, her 
gains are more apparent than real. Her big, un- 
wieldy block of Macedonian land, as yet cut off 
from its natural outlets alike to west and to south, 
will take some digesting. 

Greece gained much, and by her subsequent 
occupation of South Albania has gained more, 
but generosity to her adversary in the hour of 
bitter defeat might have enabled her to interfere 
with advantage to herself in the greater conflict 
which is now being waged. 

This brief account of the more important changes 
which resulted from the wars of 19 12- 13 may 
help to justify the statement already made that the 
191 3 settlement settled nothing, but left, on the 



( 



v 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 227 

contrary, a large number of problems urgently- 
requiring solution. We must hope that in the great 
peacemaking which is to come — we know not when 
— the difficulties will be more squarely faced. 

NOTE. 

The details of the Balkan campaigns, the terms of peace, and, 
so forth, are now to be found in the usual books of reference. 
Among articles which appeared at the time special mention 
may be made of those in Questions Diplomatiques et Coloniales ; 
notably, Tsarigradski, " Roumanie et Bulgarie " (February 16. 
1913); Thomasson, " La Tragedie Bulgare " (August 1, 1913) ; 
the same, "La Paix de Bucarest " (August 16, 1913); Tsari- 
gradski, " La valeur comparee des acquisitions Balkaniques " 
(October 1, 191 3). 



EPILOGUE 

THE FUTURE AND ITS PROBLEMS 

To attempt to forecast the probable or even the 
desirable lines of settlement in the Balkan region 
would be futile in itself, and contrary also to the 
whole spirit in which this book has been written. 
Peace, when it comes, will be determined — as all 
on this earth is determined — by the balance of 
opposing forces, and the strength and nature of 
these forces is not yet fully apparent. But it may 
be useful to set forth, as dispassionately as may be, 
the conclusions suggested by our geographical 
-tudy of the region — conclusions which ought to 
influence those in whose hands the conditions of 
peace lie. 

Let us begin by summarizing, in the most general 
fashion, the facts which have emerged from our 
survey. We have seen that the peninsula south 
of the Save-Danube line consists of a northern 
quadrilateral, with an essentially continental cli- 
mate, and a southern truly peninsular area, deeply 
interpenetrated by the sea, which is as character- 
istically Mediterranean, in climate no less than in 
products. But, and this is one of the most impor- 
tant features of the whole region, of the three sea- 

228 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 229 

boards of the northern quadrilateral, the western, 
and, to a less extent, the southern, is also Mediter- 
ranean in its climate and products. The third sea- 
front, that which faces the Black Sea, shows recent 
elevation of the coast, and partly because of this 
elevation, partly because of the river captures 
brought about by the sinking of the ^Egean, the 
chief streams tend to avoid their " natural " 
destiny, and turn northwards (Danube) or south- 
wards (Maritza and its great tributaries) to the 
^Egean. This fact, combined with the relative 
difficulty of access of the Black Sea from the 
Mediterranean, reduces the importance of this 
eastern coast-line. The result is that Bulgaria, 
despite the fact that she has in Varna and Burgas 
good Euxine ports, with minor ones in addition, is 
necessarily drawn towards the southern or JEgean 
coast. As we have said, this JEgean coast, like 
the Adriatic one — though somewhat less markedly 
— because of its climate, its productions, and its 
external relations, belongs geographically rather to 
a Mediterranean state like Greece than to cereal- 
producing Eastern European states like those 
which occupy the greater part of the northern 
quadrilateral. Thus these northern states are 
faced, as their first difficulty, with the problem 
that their best outlets lie on coasts whose inhabi- 
tants have in general a different mode of life from 
theirs, coasts which thus tend to be included in 
different social and political complexes. 



230 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

Their second difficulty, and that to which we 
have devoted much attention in the foregoing 
pages, is that their respective territories are singu- 
larly devoid of natural centres round which each 
nation may crystallize, and yet at the same time 
are open to invasion from several sides, as few 
other countries are open. The result of this is seen 
on the one hand in the long domination of the Turk, 
and on the other in the constant interference of 
the adjacent Powers in the internal affairs of the 
peninsula. 

0*~ "• effect of this interference is evident in the fact 
that up to the present the Adriatic coast-line has, 
since the Middle Ages, played practically no part 
in the development of the interior of the northern 
quadrilateral. Thus Serbia has been economically 
dependent on Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria, 
previously limited to her Black Sea coast with its 
obvious disadvantages, did not till yesterday 
succeed in finding an outlet — and that an inade- 
quate one — upon the JEgean. From the northern 
part of the Adriatic Serbia has been cut off, not only 
by the considerable physical barrier of the Dinaric 
Alps, but by the more complete barrier of customs. 
Her cattle, for instance, have been denied all exit 
through Bosnia, even by the imperfect lines of 
communication which exist up to the present. 
Were the political barrier broken down, would the 
physical one still prevent her finding outlets in this 
direction ? Some geographers have answered yes, 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 231 

but, as we have pointed out, there exists, at a point 
easy of access from Serbia, what we have called 
the Albanian Gap. This Gap, encumbered though 
it be, seems to offer a suitable alternative to the 
proposal that Serbia should seek a port on the 
^Egean, where the competition is already keen, and 
which, moreover, is somewhat remote from her 
markets. The fact that some of the Powers found 
it necessary to erect the comic opera state of 
Albania as a plug in the Gap, suggests that they 
consider that the physical conditions here do not 
form a strong enough barrier without the inter- 
vention of a political one also. 

A point which we have already stressed, and 
which is worth keeping in mind, is that the north- 
to-south trending portion of the Adriatic coast, 
a part of which forms the sea-front of the North 
Albanian Gap, owing to its swampy nature, is 
not at present inhabited by any considerable 
number of people living the typical Mediterranean 
life. To allow Serbia to extend to the sea here 
would thus not mean the inclusion in her lands of 
a group of markedly different economic interests, 
as would, for example, the absorption of Dal- 
matia. 

In the northern quadrilateral of the peninsula 
Serbia and Bulgaria are the most important states, 
and both are fundamentally cereal-producing and 
cereal-exporting countries, where the majority of 
the population dwell upon the land and cultivate 



232 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

ground which they own. Montenegro is a small, 
chiefly pastoral state, handicapped by elevation, 
a frequently barren soil, and the severity of the 
winter climate. Her union with Serbia, now that 
no block of Turkish territory separates them, is 
probably but a matter of time. Bosnia-Herzego- 
vina is held by the Austrian chiefly as what the 
French call a terrain militaire, a tract of land whose 
value is military and whose economic development 
is purposely retarded. This has been one of the 
motives at the back of Austria's unwillingness to 
tackle the agrarian question seriously. Till it is 
settled, either by the present administration or by 
a totally new one, there can be no peace nor pros- 
perity. 

Albania as a genuine state never existed except 
on paper, and this particular scrap of paper is 
hardly likely to survive the present war. 

Turning next to the future, the first point to 
need emphasis is that the difficulties of readjust- 
ment especially concern Serbia and Bulgaria. The 
interests of Greece lie around the i£gean, and in 
the extremity of the peninsula generally; her in- 
trusion into the northern quadrilateral is to be 
deprecated, save perhaps to a certain extent along 
the western coast. 

Hitherto one of the great difficulties in arriving 
at stable conditions in that northern quadrilateral 
has been that the Powers would neither allow the 
people to manage their own affairs nor have they 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 233 

been able to interfere with any particular effective- 
ness, partly because of the absence of any con- 
sensus of opinion among themselves, and the asso- 
ciated want of any settled policy. 

That this country's policy has often been swayed 
by sentiment rather than by interest has not, un- 
fortunately, helped greatly the cause of any Balkan 
nationality. The separate Balkan peoples are each 
driven to develop along certain lines by the natural 
conditions under which the} T live, and a senti- 
mental, as distinguished from an informed, backing 
of one people against another is likety to be helpful 
to none. Till within the last few years Bulgaria 
enjoyed in this country what the French call a 
bonne presse, while Serbia was regarded as beneath 
contempt. If we allow our admiration of the latter 
country's recent heroic stand to lead to an excessive 
idealization of her, with an associated contempt 
for the other states, disillusionment for ourselves, 
and fresh disasters for the peninsula at large, are 
only too likely to follow. Serbia is a peasant 
state which has emerged within the last hundred 
years from a feudal regime; Bulgaria's emancipa- 
tion is more recent; in Bosnia-Herzegovina and 
Macedonia feudalism still reigns; to expect from 
any one of such states the qualities which centuries 
of freedom and constitutionalism have given in the 
West is to court disaster. 

Turning to details, it seems desirable that 
Serbia's longing for an outlet to the Adriatic 



234 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

should be gratified, more especially because an 
outlet on the North Albanian coast would enable 
her to send her livestock expeditiously to the 
Italian market. This would facilitate commercial 
intercourse between the two powers, and would prob- 
ably pave the way for a political understanding 
which would help to smooth out the difficulties 
associated with the question of the ownership of 
the Adriatic coast-line. Further, since parts of 
Bosnia are not separated by any natural frontier 
from Western Serbia, and since the difficulty of 
developing at least the central part of Bosnia by 
means of the coast of Dalmatia is considerable, it 
seems reasonable — in the event of the issue of the 
war being what we hope it will be — that at least 
parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina should be 
attached to a larger Serbia. 

The question of Dalmatia is much more difficult. 
The people here seem to be predominantly Slav by 
race, but the conditions render necessary a mode of 
life which is not that of the typical Slav elsewhere 
in the peninsula, and Italian influence is strong, 
apparently out of proportion to the actual Italian 
element. More than this, the fate of Dalmatia is 
bound up with that of Slavonia and Croatia. There 
has been recently a more or less marked tendency 
in the Press to assume that the Slav provinces of 
Austria-Hungary should be attached to a Great 
Serbia after the war, so that there would be a 
mighty union of Southern Slavs. But such a large 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 235 

Slav state would have many difficulties to face. 
Serbia at present, we must repeat, is a nation of 
land-cultivating peasants, which has not yet dis- 
played great political capacity, though she has 
shown what almost amounts to military genius. 
Further, she has before her a difficult task in 
Macedonia, and if the upshot of the present war is 
to give her an open road through North Albania, 
she will find that here also delicate readjustments 
require to be made. To develop her new terri- 
tories, to repair the waste of war, she will require 
foreign capital, which can only be got if the finan- 
ciers of the world have confidence in her political 
stability . Even if the issue of the war were to give 
her opportunity, would she be wise to attempt to 
assimilate a large population to the north, differing 
in religion, in degree of social development, in 
history? It may be noted as an element in the 
problem that the Austrian province of Dalmatia 
has a total area of nearly 5.000 square miles, with 
a population of about 650,000, the Hungarian 
province of Croatia and Slavonia one of nearly 
16,500 square miles, with a population of more 
than 2,500,000. Serbia's area in 191 3 was 34,000 
square miles, her population 4,500,000. To add 
to this, altogether apart from possibilities in North 
Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina, an area of 21,400 
square miles, with a population of approximate^ 
3,270,000, would be a hazardous experiment. 
Further, to take away Croatia from Hungary 



236 GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF 

would be to take away Fiume, and thus to shut off 
the wide fertile plains of that monarchy from the 
sea. Such an action would, sooner or later, bring 
disaster to all concerned. 

The question is, of course, bound up with the fate 
of Austria- Hungary as a monarchy, in regard to 
which meantime no man can prophesy. But it is 
worth note that though it may be rhetorically 
effective to call that empire " ramshackle," yet it 
is an obvious retort that perfection is an attribute 
of machinery, not of living organisms. All living 
beings contain organs and structures of different 
origin and history, some useful, others apparent ly 
without function ; it is only machines in which 
every bar and bolt is placed with a set purpose- 
Just because they are more or less ramshackle have 
living beings the power of modification and adjust- 
ment, while the perfected machine cannot adapt 
itself to changing conditions. Are we so sure that 
the Dual Monarchy has not some of the living 
creature's quality of adaptability? The present 
war is said to be a Magyar war. Not so long ago 
the Magyars were oppressed; of recent years they 
have successfully oppressed other nationalities. 
But is there no hope that a better wa}' may be 
found ? In any case it seems very doubtful 
whether Serbia would gain much by being merged 
into a great Southern Slav nation, and a submer- 
gence would inevitably bring fresh difficulties in 
the south. 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 237 

As we have seen, Greece has solved a part of the 
South Albanian question in her own way. It seems 
almost certain that the Albanian experiment will 
not be repeated, but some delicate adjustments of 
territory will have to take place if the reasonable 
claims of Italy in the region of the Straits of 
Otranto are to be safeguarded. 

If Serbia receives satisfaction in North Albania, 
and if Greece has fair treatment in South Albania, 
one would fain hope that both states will consent 
to such changes in Southern Macedonia as will 
remove the worst -of Bulgaria's grievances. There 
is not likely to be permanent peace in the peninsula 
till the present conditions in the Maritza and 
Struma valleys are modified . If and when the Turk 
is finally banished from Europe, and Constantinople 
comes into the keeping of another Power or Powers, 
then the trend of Bulgaria's trade towards the 
^gean must become stronger than ever, and she is 
not likely to rest till she gains undisputed posses- 
sion of one or both of these valleys. If conditions 
make it possible, she should have Kavala as her 
chief outlet to the south. 

We have tried to show that the peninsula as a 
whole is geographically of extraordinar}^ interest, 
but that the very complexity of structure which 
gives it its geographical interest has made its 
history troubled in the extreme. As the geo- 
graphical facts must continue to exercise their 
effect, we cannot hope that the future will be smooth 



238 BALKAN PROBLEMS 

and untroubled, but there is at least more prospect 
of finding a solution of the numerous problems if 
we recognize that they have a root in physical 
features. If this book helps to throw light upon 
the dark places, if it encourage any to pursue in 
further detail the questions which could only be 
touched upon within the compass of a small volume, 
then it has not been written in vain. 



■%<. 



n 





238 



BALKAN PROBLEMS 



and untroubled, but there is at least more prospect 
of finding a solution of the numerous problems if 
we recognize that they have a root in physical 
features. If this book helps to throw light upon 
the dark places, if it encourage any to pursue in 
further detail the questions which could only be 
touched upon within the compass of a small volume, 
then it has not been written in vain. 



OROGRAPHICAL MAP OF THE BALKAN REGIONS 




INDEX 



\immovic, I'rof., 162 
Adrianopli', 24, 25, 97, 156, 218. , 

Adriatic coast, 173, 230, 234 
Sea, 3, 7, t>, 31, 32, 41, 43, 44, 
48, 58, 60, 61, 69, 70-73, 
85-87, 89, 93, 99-101, 104, 
..4. 116, 152-154, 157, 
17a, 2x8, 226, 229, 233 
an Sea, 3, 6, 7, 9-11, 13, 2i. 
ajj -7. 20, 31, 52, 65, 69, 70, 73, 
-'>, 80, 85, 86, 94, 97, 99, 104, 
15a, 154, 164, 168, 216, 219, 
-'8-232, 237 
Albania; ai, 31, 38, 42, 53, 57. 6i, 
62, 112, 114, 121, 128, 183, 
184, 188, 215, 216, 218, 21Q, 
1. 232 

rth. 105, 120, 217, 234, 235. 

a ' 
South, 219, 226, 236, 237 

Albanian Alps, 42, 58, 59, 117 

1 rap, 12, 86, i ;i 

Mbanians, 106, 107. m-113. 115- 

117. IK). 121, 123, 129, I3O, 131, 

J 33> '36, U7> 140, 143. '45. l6 7- 

172, 183, 188 
AJessio, 93 

iMmyros plain, 166, 175, 176 
Alpine man, 107 
Alps, 5, 37, 172 

Central, 8, 9, 50 
Eastern, 8, 40 
Antivari, 152 
Argyrokastro, 115 
Armenia, 92 
Armenians, 106, 143 
Arta, Gulf of, 154 
Athens, 152, 154 



Austria, 37-40, 50, 60, 87, 113, 186, 

187, 209, 232 
\u tria-Hungary, 35, 36, 101, 174, 

185, 191-195, 209, 215, 230, 234, 

236 
Austrian Government, 189, 190, 

195, 196 

Bagdad railway, 90 
Balkan Range, 6, 7, n, 13, 21, 23, 
28, 96, 136, 156, 157, 
156, 1O1, 225 
Anti-, 23, 73, 74 
Inter-, valley, 23, 24, 73-76, 96 
War, 24, 30, 31, 35, 54, 61, 
139, roo. 227 
Baltchik, 222 
Belgrade, io 5 11, 14, 29, 58, 81, 

92, 93. 95. 9 6 . '5 1 - '5 2 . 221 
Belgrade-Constantinople railway, 

90, 99 

Belgrade-Nish-Salonika railway, 

90 
Berlin Treaty, 29, 39 
Black Sea, 6, 7, 11, 24, 25, 29, 69, 

70, 72, 76, 80, 100, 133, 216, 220, 

222, 224, 225, 229, 230 
Blood feuds in Albania, 113-114, 

117-121 
Bosna R., 49, 72 
Bosnia, 20, 29, 32, 3^, 38-40, 46, 

48-50, 54, 55, 94, 102, 140, 142, 

i74, 175. l86 . 188, 193-195. x 99> 

230, 234 
Bosnia-Herzegovina, 185, 186, 189, 

192, 196, 197, 215, 233, 235 
Bosnians, 108, 187, 197 
Bosphorus Straits, 16, 104 
Brailsford, H. N., lai, 143 



2 39 



240 



INDEX 



Bregalnitza R., 92 

Brindisi, 90 

Bulgaria, 7, 8, 20, 21, 24-27, 31, 
32, 34, 56, 57, 70, 75, 76, 86, 87, 
97, 98, 102, 104, 105, 124, 140- 
142, 151, I54-I57, 160-162, 174, 
177-180, 197, 198, 206, 212-219, 
220-225, 229-233, 2 37 

Bulgars, 98, 100-108, no, 127, 129- 

I3 1 . i33> 134, 1 3 s " » 39» J 4 6 , 
159, 168 
Moslem, 142, 143 
Bukarest, 221, 222 
Burgas, 24, 74, 76, 152, 229 

Canale della Montagna, 44 
Carpathians, 5, 7 
Central Europe, plains of, 19, 36, 
98, to4, 107, 125 
Upland of Balkan Peninsula, 

IO, 13, 2!. 24, 12.1 

Cetinje, 18 

Chalikiopoulos, Leonidas, 171, 181 

Chernavoda, 92, 221 

Coastal Mts. of Peninsula. 9, 10, 

1 1 
Constantinople, 11, 14, 16, 23, 25, 

52, 63, 94, 95, 97, 99, 100, 104, 

109, 130, 135, 156, 215, 237 
Constanza, 76, 221 
Crete, 64, 152 

Croatia, 17, 20, 38, 140, 234, 235 
Cvijic\ Prof., 12, 18, 29, 51, 58, 

64, 65, 84, 87, 105, 122, 126, 143 
Cyrillic alphabet, 17 

Dalmatia, 20, 37, 38, 42, 45, 46, 
62-64, 71, 140, 192, 231, 234, 235 

Danube R., 7, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, 21, 
23-25, 28, 32, 69, 70, 76, 79, 80, 
85-87, 90, 92, 93, 95, 96, 98, 100, 
138, 208, 220-222, 229 

Danube-Adriatic railway, 105. 208 

Dardanelles, 16, 104 

Dedeagatch, 92, 223 

Denmark, 212 

Detchan, 118 

Diakova, 55, 59, 118 

Dibra, 63 

Dinaric Alps, 8, 9, 28, 29, 34, 40, 

4* 5 49, 5 1 , 79, 23° 
Dobrudja, 25, 161, 220 
Dragoman Pass, 96 



Drina R., 49, 72, 193 
Drin Gulf, 12, 57 

R., 30, 41, 45, 60, 61, 86, 87, 

93, 99 
Dual Monarchy, 35-37, 195, 209, 

236 

Durazzo, 34, 63, 90, 100 

Durham, Miss, 121 

Durmitor, Mt., 42, 158 

East European climate, 162 
Eastern Roumelia, 155, 161 
East Roumelian basin, 70 
England, 146, 147, 149, 151, 157, 

206 
Engler and Drude, 162 
Enos, 216 

Enos-Midia line, 156, 219, 223 
Epirus, 21, 53, 57, 64, 115, 131, 219 
Eregli, 92 
Ergene R., 218, 223 
Euxine, see Black Sea 

Fischer, 115, 181, 203, 205 
Fiume, 15, 37, 38, 41, 43, 236 
Flysch rocks, 40, 42, 49, 64, 193 

Garda, L., 156 j 

Genoa, 104 

German colonists in Bosnia, 191, 

'93, 195 

Gibbons, 121 

Giurgevo, 222 

Glossa C.j see Linguetta, Cape 

Gorz, 41 

Gradiska, 44 

Gravier, Gaston, 65, 197 

Greco-Turkish War, 163 

Gredelyitza, 79, 81, 84 

Greece, 20, 27, 31, 34, 53, 64, 87, 
105, 124, 128, 130, 131, 133, 134, 
141, 142, 145, 148, 151-154, i57, 
158, 160, 162-164, 166, 167, 171, 
174, 177, 179- 181 , 216, 224, 225, 
229, 232, 236, 237 

Greeks, 89, 106-108, no, 123, 142, 
143, '45, M6, 148, 164, 167, 168, 
l 73, J 75, 178-180, 181, 183, 218, 
219, 226 

Hann, 162 

Hassert, Dr. Kurt, 100, 117, 120, 
138 



INDEX 



241 



Hermanli, 97 

Herzegovina, 20, 32, 38, 39, 40, 42, 

47. 5°, Ho, 142, 192. !93» *95 
Hungarian plain, 14, 84, 209, 235 
Hungary, 8, 10, 33, 37, 39, 44, 70, 

209, 235 

Ibar R., 54, 79, 83, 86, 100, 199 

Iberian Peninsula, 4, 15 

Ichtiman, 97 

Illyrians, 123, 128 

Ionian Sea, 124 

Ireland, 147, 149, 151, 157, 206- 

208, 211 
Iron Gates of Danube, 7, 8, 70 
Isker Valley, 92, 96, 97 
Istria, 42, 44 
Ivan Saddle, 48 

Jews, 106, 143 

Karditsa, 167-169 

Karla L., 168 

Karst country, 9, 41, 44, 45, 47, 

59. 6 4, 72, 195 

Kavala, 52-54, 104, 219, 224, 237 

Kavarna, 222 

Kazanlik, 23, 156 

Kerka R., 44 

Kirchkoff, 181 

Khassia Mts., 164 

Kopaonik Mts., 99 

Kosovo, basin of (polye), 54, 59, 

60, 79, 80-82, 93, 94, 99, 105, 115 
Kralyevo, 79 

Krebs, Dr. Norbert, 60, 105 
Kreutzbruck v. Lilienfels, 105 
Krushevatz, 94 
Kulpa R., 15 

Lab valley, 81 
Laibach, 41 
Larissa, 166-169 
Lepenatz R., 80, 83 
Leskovatz, 28, 79 
Linguetta C, 64 
Lombardy, plain of, 156 
Lule Burgas, 218 

Macedonia, 10, 11, 17, 21, 34, 39, 
52-57, 64, 65, 69, 76-78, 80, 
81, 85-87, 90, 92, 93, 97, 106, 



108-U0, 126, 131, 183, 140, 

Mi, i45> !5 8 , *59> l6 3> i 6 4, 
166, 167, 173, 174, 182, 183, 
185, 188, 195, 199, 215, 216, 
219, 225, 226, 233, 235 
North, see Old Serbia 
South, 124, 174, 180, 237 
Magnesian peninsula, 166, 170 

Hills, 167 
Magyars, 191, 192, 195, 236 
Mannagetta, von Beck, 162 
Maritza R., 24, 25, 53, 69, 96-98, 
2i8 3 223, 229, 237 
Lower R., 74, 156, 223, 225 
valley, 124, 219, 225, 237 
Marmora, Sea of, 92 
Mediterranean climate, 131, 154, 
155, 160-162, 170, 181, 192, 
228, 229 
peoples, 107, 135 
region, 62, 172, 196 
Sea, 85 
Merdare Pass, 81 
Mesta R., 53, 69 
Metkovich, 47, 93 
Metoya depression, 59, 60, 99, 100, 

105. "5 
Meuse R., 83 

Mid-European climate, 162 
Midia, 216, 219, 223 
Migration of Vlachs, 124-127, 172 
Miller, 181, 185, 196 
Mitrovitza, 30, 59, 79, 81, 94 
Monastir, 17, 55, 56, 63, 85, 92 
Montenegrins, 167, 185, 189 
Montenegro, 20, 21, 30, 31, 34, 38, 

42, 53. 57. "2, "5. x 39, *42, 15 s - 
183, 184, 232 
Morava R., 49, 54, 78, 79, 80-83, 
86, 94-96 
Southern, R., Si, 199 
valley, 28, 29, 208 
Western, R., 99, 102 
Moselle R., 83 
Mostar, 47, 48 

Naples, 104, 157 

Narenta R., 43, 45, 47. 48, 60, 71, 

93. 99. J 9 2 o 
Negotin, 208 
Nish, 10, 11, 18, 23, 58, 60, 80, 86, 

93, 94. 99. ,0 °' io2 



I 



42 



INDEX 



Nishava R., 96 
North Spain, 172 
Novibazar, 21, 30, 39, 48, 53, 54, 
57> 6 5. 94, 140, 173. 216 

Oestreich, 118, 121 

Okhrida L., 53, 85, 92, 100 

Orfani or Rendina, Bay of, 54, 224 

Orient railway, 223 

Orleans, 67 

Ossa Mt., 166 

Ostrovo L., 5 . 

Othrys, 164 

Otranto, Straits of, 38, 237 

Pannonian Basin, 28, 29 

Sea, 32, 41, 70, 84 
Paris, 66, 67 

basin, 77 
Peacock, 121 
Pelagonian basin, 56 
Pelion Mt., 166 
Peneos R., 168 
Perinthus, 92 
Persia, 92 
Peucker, 18 
1'hilippi, 54, 92 
Philippopolis, 23, 97, 222 
Philippson, 18, 162, 181 
Pindus Range, 124, 164, 169 

region, 131 
Pirot, 96, 210 

Place-names, forms of, 17, 18 
Plain of Lombardy, 5 
Polyen, 79, 81, 82, 192, 195 
Prepolatz Pass, 80, 93, 100 
Presba L., 53, 85 
Prishtina, 59 
Prizren, 93, 100 
Prokletia Mts., 57 
Provence, 172 

Quarnero, Gulf of, 41 

Raduyevatz, 105 

Ragusa, 99, 157 

Ragusans, 100, 101 

Rhodope, 6, n, 23, 24, 28, 53, 69, 

73, 74, 84, 96, 97, 104, 158, 160, 

225 
Rila Dagh or Rila Mts., 24, 158 
River capture, 73-76, 82-87 



Rogatitza, 94 

Roumania, 7, 34, 126, 139, 142, 

219-224 
Roumanian basin, 70 

frontier, 220 
Roumanians, 106, no, 123 
Rushtchuk, 222 
Russia, 155, 157, 195 

Salona, 44 

Salonika, 10, 14, 26, 29, 30, 34, 39, 

53. S4> 5 6 , 5 8 » 6o > 6 3> 79, 81, 
92-94, 100, 126, 133, 151, 157, 
225, 226 
Gulf of, 141 
San Giovanni di Medua, Gulf of, 

42, 57, 58 

Town of, 63, 105 

Santi Quaranta, 64 

Sadne-Rhone valley, 67 

Sarajevo, 30, 47, 4S, 93, 94, 99, 102 

Sarajevo-Mitrovitza-Salonika rail- 
way, 90 

Save R., 10, 14, 15, 28, 32, 41, 42, 

44, 49> 6 9> 7 2 , 93, 94, *93 
Save-Danube R., 104, 199, 228 
Scardona, 44 
Schluter, 51 

Scotland, 146, 147, 149, 151, 172 
Scutari, 31, 59, 60, 183, 185 

Lake of, 34, 59, 184 
Sebenico, 44 
Seine R., 66, 67 
Semendria, 79, 208 
Serbia, 8, 17, 20, 21, 28-34, 40, 48, 

49, 53, 54, 57, 5 8 , 6o " 6 3, 6 5, 
78, 87, 89, 93, 102, 104, 105, 
112, 116, 124, 139, 141, 142, 

H5, iS^SSj ! 57, '5 8 > l6 °- 
162, 174, 175, 179, 186, 192, 
193, 195-214, 216-219, 226, 
230-237 
Old, 79, 140, 216 
Serbs, 33, 80, 106, 108-111, 115, 
127, 131, 136, 138, 139, 142, 145, 
146, 159, 172, 179, 186, 189, 200, 
203, 204, 226 
Seres, 54, 219, 224 
Shar Mts., 58, 59 
Shkumbi valley, 92, 115 
Shumla, 222 
Siebertz, 121 






INDEX 



243 



Silistria, 220, 221, 222 
Sitnitza R., 79 
Slavonia, 5, 140, 234, 235 
Slavs, 33, 95, 98, 107, 128, 131, 

1365 !37, 140, i45> J 46, 148, 168, 

i73> 178, i79> l8 5> 186-188, 191, 

195, 196, 203, 234 
Sofia, 11, 23, 92, 94, 96, 97, 100, 

104, 157, 1158, 222, 224 
Spalato, 44, 45, 157 
Stara Planina, 124 
Stead, Alfred, 214 
Striema R., 74 
Struga, 63, 92 
Struma R., 69, 92, 98 

valley, 104, 219, 224, 225, 237 

Tchatchak, 94 
Tempe, Vale of, 168 
Thessaly, 124, 133, 157, 158, 163- 
i75= J 77> 178, 180-183, 187, 
196 

Greek, 163, 164 
Thomasson, 227 
Thompson, see Wace 
Thrace, 21, 25, 53, 133, 141, 161, 

216, 218 
Timok valley, 93, 208 
Toplitza valley, 81, 93 
Trajan's Gate, 97 
Transhumance, 172 
Transylvanian Alps, 6, 7, 28 
Treaty of Berlin, 221 
Trieste, 37 
Trikkala, 168 
Tsarigradski, 227 
Tserna R., 56 
Tucic, 143 
Tundja R., 24, 70, 74 

Upper, 25 
Turkey, 35, 52, 97, 174, 213-216, 

223-225 
Turkish Empire, 113, 133 

feudal system, 196 

rule, 202, 2ir 



Turks, 10, 23> 8o > 95> 99- IOI > io 7> 
108, 110-112, 127-129, 131, 

^S"^ 8 . i4i-i43> i59> 163, 
164, 167, 175, 177, 182, 187, 
188, 195, 202, 212, 216, 219, 
225, 230, 237 
Osmanli, 106, 143, 144 

Turtukai, 221 

Tyrrhenian Sea, 3, 7 

Tzerna, 18 

Ujitze (Ushitze of map), 94, 102 
Uskub, 10, 17, 30, 54, 55, 58, 63, 
79) 8o > 8 5- 86 > 94> M ) I4 1 

Vakarel Pass, 97 

Valona, 58, 63 

Vardar R., 56, 69, 80-83, 8 6> 92 

valley, 29, 54, 79 
Vardishte, 94 
Varna, 76, 222, 229 
Vendetta, 112-114, 117-121 
Verbas R., 49, 72 
Via Egnatia, 63, 90, 92, 100 
Vid R., 92 
Vishegrad, 94 
Vistritza R., 56, 69 
Vlachs, 106, 123-127, 129, 131, 136, 

i37> Hi, 142, 167, 172, 174 
Vodena, 55 

Volo, Gulf of, 154, 166-169, J 7 8 
Vranya, 29 

Wace and Thompson, 126 
Wales, 146, 147, 149 
Wallachians, 123 

Young Turk party, 11 1, 112, 116, 
2i5 

Zadrima plain, 183, 185 
Zadrugas, 201, 204 
Zara, 44 
Zeta road, 100 



BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND 



